The chiral symplectic universality class

We report a numerical investigation of localization in the SU(2) model without diagonal disorder. At the band center, chiral symmetry plays an important role. Our results indicate that states at the band center are critical. States away from the band center but not too close to the edge of the spectrum are metallic as expected for Hamiltonians with symplectic symmetry.Comment: accepted in Proceedings of Localisation 2002 Conference, Tokyo, Japan (to be published as supplement of J. Phys. Soc. Japan

Two distance-regular graphs

We construct two families of distance-regular graphs, namely the subgraph of the dual polar graph of type B_3(q) induced on the vertices far from a fixed point, and the subgraph of the dual polar graph of type D_4(q) induced on the vertices far from a fixed edge. The latter is the extended bipartite double of the former

Fano resonances as a probe of phase coherence in quantum dots

In the presence of direct trajectories connecting source and drain contacts, the conductance of a quantum dot may exhibit resonances of the Fano type. Since Fano resonances result from the interference of two transmission pathways, their lineshape (as described by the Fano parameter q) is sensitive to dephasing in the quantum dot. We show that under certain circumstances the dephasing time can be extracted from a measurement of q for a single resonance. We also show that q fluctuates from level to level, and calculate its probability distribution for a chaotic quantum dot. Our results are relevant to recent experiments by Goeres et al.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; published versio

Finite size effects and localization properties of disordered quantum wires with chiral symmetry

Finite size effects in the localization properties of disordered quantum wires are analyzed through conductance calculations. Disorder is induced by introducing vacancies at random positions in the wire and thus preserving the chiral symmetry. For quasi one-dimensional geometries and low concentration of vacancies, an exponential decay of the mean conductance with the wire length is obtained even at the center of the energy band. For wide wires, finite size effects cause the conductance to decay following a non-pure exponential law. We propose an analytical formula for the mean conductance that reproduces accurately the numerical data for both geometries. However, when the concentration of vacancies increases above a critical value, a transition towards the suppression of the conductance occurs. This is a signature of the presence of ultra-localized states trapped in finite regions of the sample.Comment: 5 figures, revtex

Topological equivalence of crystal and quasicrystal band structures

A number of recent articles have reported the existence of topologically non-trivial states and associated end states in one-dimensional incommensurate lattice models that would usually only be expected in higher dimensions. Using an explicit construction, we here argue that the end states have precisely the same origin as their counterparts in commensurate models and that incommensurability does not in fact provide a meaningful connection to the topological classification of systems in higher dimensions. In particular, we show that it is possible to smoothly interpolate between states with commensurate and incommensurate modulation parameters without closing the band gap and without states crossing the band gap.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures. Editors' Suggestio