3,622 research outputs found
Coulomb-blockade effect in nonlinear mesoscopic capacitors
We consider an interacting quantum dot working as a coherent source of single
electrons. The dot is tunnel coupled to a reservoir and capacitively coupled to
a gate terminal with an applied ac potential. At low frequencies, this is the
quantum analog of the RC circuit with a purely dynamical response. We
investigate the quantized dynamics as a consequence of ac pulses with large
amplitude. Within a Keldysh-Green function formalism we derive the
time-dependent current in the Coulomb blockade regime. Our theory thus extends
previous models that considered either noninteracting electrons in nonlinear
response or interacting electrons in the linear regime. We prove that the
electron emission and absorption resonances undergo a splitting when the
charging energy is larger than the tunnel broadening. For very large charging
energies, the additional peaks collapse and the original resonances are
recovered, though with a reduced amplitude. Quantization of the charge emitted
by the capacitor is reduced due to Coulomb repulsion and additional plateaus
arise. Additionally, we discuss the differential capacitance and resistance as
a function of time. We find that to leading order in driving frequency the
current can be expressed as a weighted sum of noninteracting currents shifted
by the charging energy.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Minor changes. Published versio
Propagations of massive graviton in the deformed Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity
We study massive graviton propagations of scalar, vector, and tensor modes in
the deformed Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity by introducing Lorentz-violating mass
term. It turns out that vector and tensor modes are massively propagating on
the Minkowski spacetime background. However, adding the mass term does not cure
a ghost instability in the Ho\v{r}ava scalar.Comment: 17 pages, version with projectability requirement, to appear in PR
Magnetoasymmetric transport in a mesoscopic interferometer: From the weak to the strong coupling regime
The microreversibility principle implies that the conductance of a
two-terminal Aharonov-Bohm interferometer is an even function of the applied
magnetic flux. Away from linear response, however, this symmetry is not
fulfilled and the conductance phase of the interferometer when a quantum dot is
inserted in one of its arms can be a continuous function of the bias voltage.
Such magnetoasymmetries have been investigated in related mesoscopic systems
and arise as a consequence of the asymetric response of the internal potential
of the conductor out of equilibrium. Here we discuss magnetoasymmetries in
quantum-dot Aharonov-Bohm interferometers when strong electron-electron
interactions are taken into account beyond the mean-field approach. We find
that at very low temperatures the asymmetric element of the differential
conductance shows an abrupt change for voltages around the Fermi level. At
higher temperatures we recover a smooth variation of the magnetoasymmetry as a
function of the bias. We illustrate our results with the aid of the electron
occupation at the dot, demonstrating that its nonequilibrium component is an
asymmetric function of the flux even to lowest order in voltage. We also
calculate the magnetoasymmetry of the current-current correlations (the noise)
and find that it is given, to a good extent, by the magnetoasymmetry of the
weakly nonlinear conductance term. Therefore, both magnetoasymmetries (noise
and conductance) are related to each other via a higher-order
fluctuation-dissipation relation. This result appears to be true even in the
low temperature regime, where Kondo physics and many-body effects dominate the
transport properties.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure
Health outcomes of children born to mothers with chronic kidney disease: a pilot study
This study aimed to study the health of children born to mothers with chronic kidney disease. Twenty-four children born to mothers with chronic kidney disease were compared with 39 matched control children born to healthy mothers without kidney disease. The well-being of each child was individually assessed in terms of physical health, neurodevelopment and psychological health. Families participating with renal disease were more likely to be from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Significantly fewer vaginal deliveries were reported for mothers with renal disease and their infants were more likely to experience neonatal morbidity. Study and control children were comparable for growth parameters and neurodevelopment as assessed by the Griffiths scales. There was no evidence of more stress amongst mothers with renal disease or of impaired bonding between mother and child when compared to controls. However, there was evidence of greater externalizing behavioral problems in the group of children born to mothers with renal disease. Engaging families in such studies is challenging. Nonetheless, families who participated appreciated being asked. The children were apparently healthy but there was evidence in this small study of significant antenatal and perinatal morbidity compared to controls. Future larger multi-center studies are required to confirm these early findings
Anomalous Transmission Phase of a Kondo-Correlated Quantum Dot
We study phase evolution of transmission through a quantum dot with Kondo
correlations. By considering a model that includes nonresonant transmission as
well as the Anderson impurity, we explain unusually large phase evolution of
about in the Kondo valley observed in recent experiments. We argue that
this anomalous phase evolution is a universal property that can be found in the
high-temperature Kondo phase in the presence of the time-reversal symmetry.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Andreev Bound States in the Kondo Quantum Dots Coupled to Superconducting Leads
We have studied the Kondo quantum dot coupled to two superconducting leads
and investigated the subgap Andreev states using the NRG method. Contrary to
the recent NCA results [Clerk and Ambegaokar, Phys. Rev. B 61, 9109 (2000);
Sellier et al., Phys. Rev. B 72, 174502 (2005)], we observe Andreev states both
below and above the Fermi level.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Kondo Effect and Josephson Current through a Quantum Dot between Two Superconductors
We investigate the supercurrent through a quantum dot for the whole range of
couplings using the numerical renormalization group method. We find that the
Josephson current switches abruptly from a - to a 0-phase as the coupling
increases. At intermediate couplings the total spin in the ground state depends
on the phase difference between the two superconductors. Our numerical results
can explain the crossover in the conductance observed experimentally by
Buitelaar \textit{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{89}, 256 801 (2002)].Comment: Fig.2 and corresponding text have been changed; Several other small
change
The Two-impurity Anderson Model Revisited: Competition between Kondo Effect and Reservoir-mediated Superexchange in Double Quantum Dots
We study a series-coupled double quantum dot in the Kondo regime modeled by
the two-impurity Anderson model and find a new conduction-band mediated
superexchange interaction that competes with Kondo physics in the strong
Coulomb interaction limit. Our numerical renormalization group results,
complemented with the higher-order Rayleigh-Schr\"odinger perturbation theory,
show that the novel exchange mechanism leads to clear experimental consequences
that can be checked in transport measurements through double quantum dots
Transport properties of a molecule embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer
We theoretically investigate the transport properties of a molecule embedded
in one arm of a mesoscopic Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. Due to the presence of
phonons the molecule level position () and the electron-electron
interaction () undergo a \emph{polaronic shift} which affects dramatically
the electronic transport through the molecular junction. When the
electron-phonon interaction is weak the linear conductance presents Fano-line
shapes as long as the direct channel between the electrodes is opened. The
observed Fano resonances in the linear conductance are originated from the
interference between the spin Kondo state and the direct path. For strong
enough electron-phonon interaction, the electron-electron interaction is
renormalized towards negative values, {\it i.e.} becomes effectively
attractive. This scenario favors fluctuations between the empty and doubly
occupied charge states and therefore promotes a charge Kondo effect. However,
the direct path between the contacts breaks the electron-hole symmetry which
can efficiently suppress this charge Kondo effect. Nevertheless, we show that a
proper tuning of the gate voltage is able to revive the Kondo resonance. Our
results are obtained by using the Numerical Renormalization approximation to
compute the electronic spectral function and the linear conductance.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure
Kondo effect in spin-orbit mesoscopic interferometers
We consider a flux-threaded Aharonov-Bohm ring with an embedded quantum dot
coupled to two normal leads. The local Rashba spin-orbit interaction acting on
the dot electrons leads to a spin-dependent phase factor in addition to the
Aharonov-Bohm phase caused by the external flux. Using the numerical
renormalization group method, we find a splitting of the Kondo resonance at the
Fermi level which can be compensated by an external magnetic field. To fully
understand the nature of this compensation effect, we perform a scaling
analysis and derive an expression for the effective magnetic field. The
analysis is based on a tight-binding model which leads to an effective Anderson
model with a spin-dependent density of states for the transformed lead states.
We find that the effective field originates from the combined effect of Rashba
interaction and magnetic flux and that it contains important corrections due to
electron-electron interactions. We show that the compensating field is an
oscillatory function of both the spin-orbit and the Aharonov-Bohm phases.
Moreover, the effective field never vanishes due to the particle-hole symmetry
breaking independently of the gate voltage.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
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