Asymmetric Zero-Bias Anomaly for Strongly Interacting Electrons in One Dimension

We study a system of one-dimensional electrons in the regime of strong repulsive interactions, where the spin exchange coupling J is small compared with the Fermi energy, and the conventional Tomonaga-Luttinger theory does not apply. We show that the tunneling density of states has a form of an asymmetric peak centered near the Fermi level. In the spin-incoherent regime, where the temperature is large compared to J, the density of states falls off as a power law of energy \epsilon measured from the Fermi level, with the prefactor at positive energies being twice as large as that at the negative ones. In contrast, at temperatures below J the density of states forms a split peak with most of the weight shifted to negative \epsilon.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Zeros of the Partition Function for Higher--Spin 2D Ising Models

We present calculations of the complex-temperature zeros of the partition functions for 2D Ising models on the square lattice with spin $s=1$, 3/2, and 2. These give insight into complex-temperature phase diagrams of these models in the thermodynamic limit. Support is adduced for a conjecture that all divergences of the magnetisation occur at endpoints of arcs of zeros protruding into the FM phase. We conjecture that there are $4[s^2]-2$ such arcs for $s \ge 1$, where $[x]$ denotes the integral part of $x$.Comment: 8 pages, latex, 3 uuencoded figure

Universal low-temperature crossover in two-channel Kondo models

An exact expression is derived for the electron Green function in two-channel Kondo models with one and two impurities, describing the crossover from non-Fermi liquid (NFL) behavior at intermediate temperatures to standard Fermi liquid (FL) physics at low temperatures. Symmetry-breaking perturbations generically present in experiment ensure the standard low-energy FL description, but the full crossover is wholly characteristic of the unstable NFL state. Distinctive conductance lineshapes in quantum dot devices should result. We exploit a connection between this crossover and one occurring in a classical boundary Ising model to calculate real-space electron densities at finite temperature. The single universal finite-temperature Green function is then extracted by inverting the integral transformation relating these Friedel oscillations to the t matrix. Excellent agreement is demonstrated between exact results and full numerical renormalization group calculations.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures: updated version including new a section and figure comparing exact results to finite-temperature numerical renormalization group calculation

Dynamical conductance in the two-channel Kondo regime of a double dot system

We study finite-frequency transport properties of the double-dot system recently constructed to observe the two-channel Kondo effect [R. M. Potok et al., Nature 446, 167 (2007)]. We derive an analytical expression for the frequency-dependent linear conductance of this device in the Kondo regime. We show how the features characteristic of the 2-channel Kondo quantum critical point emerge in this quantity, which we compute using the results of conformal field theory as well as numerical renormalization group methods. We determine the universal cross-over functions describing non-Fermi liquid vs. Fermi liquid cross-overs and also investigate the effects of a finite magnetic field.Comment: 11 pages in PRB forma

Smearing of Coulomb Blockade by Resonant Tunneling

We study the Coulomb blockade in a grain coupled to a lead via a resonant impurity level. We show that the strong energy dependence of the transmission coefficient through the impurity level can have a dramatic effect on the quantization of the grain charge. In particular, if the resonance is sufficiently narrow, the Coulomb staircase shows very sharp steps even if the transmission through the impurity at the Fermi energy is perfect. This is in contrast to the naive expectation that perfect transmission should completely smear charging effects.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Quantum Charge Fluctuations in a Superconducting Grain

We consider charge quantization in a small superconducting grain that is contacted by a normal-metal electrode and is controlled by a capacitively coupled gate. At zero temperature and zero conductance $G$ between the grain and the electrode, the charge $Q$ as a function of the gate voltage $V_g$ changes in steps. The step height is $e$ if $\Delta<E_c$, where $\Delta$ and $E_c$ are, respectively, the superconducting gap and the charging energy of the grain. Quantum charge fluctuations at finite conductance remove the discontinuity in the dependence of $Q$ on $V_g$ and lead to a finite step width $\propto G^2\Delta$. The resulting shape of the Coulomb blockade staircase is of a novel type. The grain charge is a continuous function of $V_g$ while the differential capacitance, $dQ/dV_g$, has discontinuities at certain values of the gate voltage. We determine analytically the shape of the Coulomb blockade staircase also at non-zero temperatures.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Coulomb Blockade with Dispersive Interfaces

What quantity controls the Coulomb blockade oscillations if the dot--lead conductance is essentially frequency--dependent ? We argue that it is the ac dissipative conductance at the frequency given by the effective charging energy. The latter may be very different from the bare charging energy due to the interface--induced capacitance (or inductance). These observations are supported by a number of examples, considered from the weak and strong coupling (perturbation theory vs. instanton calculus) perspectives.Comment: 4 page