8,507 research outputs found
Coulomb Interaction and Quantum Transport through a Coherent Scatterer
An interplay between charge discreteness, coherent scattering and Coulomb
interaction yields nontrivial effects in quantum transport. We derive a real
time effective action and an equivalent quantum Langevin equation for an
arbitrary coherent scatterer and evaluate its current-voltage characteristics
in the presence of interactions. Within our model, at large conductances
and low (but outside the instanton-dominated regime) the interaction
correction to saturates and causes conductance suppression by a universal
factor which depends only on the type of the conductor.Comment: 4 pages, no figure
Quantal Brownian Motion - Dephasing and Dissipation
We analyze quantal Brownian motion in dimensions using the unified model
for diffusion localization and dissipation, and Feynman-Vernon formalism. At
high temperatures the propagator possess a Markovian property and we can write
down an equivalent Master equation. Unlike the case of the
Zwanzig-Caldeira-Leggett model, genuine quantum mechanical effects manifest
themselves due to the disordered nature of the environment. Using Wigner
picture of the dynamics we distinguish between two different mechanisms for
destruction of coherence. The analysis of dephasing is extended to the low
temperature regime by using a semiclassical strategy. Various results are
derived for ballistic, chaotic, diffusive, both ergodic and non-ergodic motion.
We also analyze loss of coherence at the limit of zero temperature and clarify
the limitations of the semiclassical approach. The condition for having
coherent effect due to scattering by low-frequency fluctuations is also pointed
out. It is interesting that the dephasing rate can be either larger or smaller
than the dissipation rate, depending on the physical circumstances.Comment: LaTex, 23 pages, 4 figures, published vesio
Statistics of voltage fluctuations in resistively shunted Josephson junctions
The intrinsic nonlinearity of Josephson junctions converts Gaussian current
noise in the input into non-Gaussian voltage noise in the output. For a
resistively shunted Josephson junction with white input noise we determine
numerically exactly the properties of the few lowest cumulants of the voltage
fluctuations, and we derive analytical expressions for these cumulants in
several important limits. The statistics of the voltage fluctuations is found
to be Gaussian at bias currents well above the Josephson critical current, but
Poissonian at currents below the critical value. In the transition region close
to the critical current the higher-order cumulants oscillate and the voltage
noise is strongly non-Gaussian. For coloured input noise we determine the third
cumulant of the voltage.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
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