Tunable dynamical channel blockade in double-dot Aharonov-Bohm interferometers

We study electronic transport through an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer with single-level quantum dots embedded in the two arms. The full counting statistics in the shot-noise regime is calculated to first order in the tunnel-coupling strength. The interplay of interference and charging energy in the dots leads to a dynamical channel blockade that is tunable by the magnetic flux penetrating the Aharonov-Bohm ring. We find super-Poissonian behavior with diverging second and higher cumulants when the Aharonov-Bohm flux approaches an integer multiple of the flux quantum.Comment: published version, 10 pages, 10 figure

Full Counting Statistics in Strongly Interacting Systems: Non-Markovian Effects

We present a theory of full counting statistics for electron transport through interacting electron systems with non-Markovian dynamics. We illustrate our approach for transport through a single-level quantum dot and a metallic single-electron transistor to second order in the tunnel-coupling strength, and discuss under which circumstances non-Markovian effects appear in the transport properties.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX; typos added, references adde

Collective Molecular Dynamics in Proteins and Membranes

The understanding of dynamics and functioning of biological membranes and in particular of membrane embedded proteins is one of the most fundamental problems and challenges in modern biology and biophysics. In particular the impact of membrane composition and properties and of structure and dynamics of the surrounding hydration water on protein function is an upcoming hot topic, which can be addressed by modern experimental and computational techniques. Correlated molecular motions might play a crucial role for the understanding of, for instance, transport processes and elastic properties, and might be relevant for protein function. Experimentally that involves determining dispersion relations for the different molecular components, i.e., the length scale dependent excitation frequencies and relaxation rates. Only very few experimental techniques can access dynamical properties in biological materials on the nanometer scale, and resolve dynamics of lipid molecules, hydration water molecules and proteins and the interaction between them. In this context, inelastic neutron scattering turned out to be a very powerful tool to study dynamics and interactions in biomolecular materials up to relevant nanosecond time scales and down to the nanometer length scale. We review and discuss inelastic neutron scattering experiments to study membrane elasticity and protein-protein interactions of membrane embedded proteins

Cotunneling through quantum dots coupled to magnetic leads: zero-bias anomaly for non-collinear magnetic configurations

Cotunneling transport through quantum dots weakly coupled to non-collinearly magnetized leads is analyzed theoretically by means of the real-time diagrammatic technique. The electric current, dot occupations, and dot spin are calculated in the Coulomb blockade regime and for arbitrary magnetic configuration of the system. It is shown that an effective exchange field exerted on the dot by ferromagnetic leads can significantly modify the transport characteristics in non-collinear magnetic configurations, in particular the zero-bias anomaly found recently for antiparallel configuration. For asymmetric Anderson model, the exchange field gives rise to precession of the dot spin, which leads to a nonmonotonic dependence of the differential conductance and tunnel magnetoresistance on the angle between magnetic moments of the leads. An enhanced differential conductance and negative TMR are found for certain non-collinear configurations.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figgure

Efficient few-body calculations in finite volume

Simulating quantum systems in a finite volume is a powerful theoretical tool to extract information about them. Real-world properties of the system are encoded in how its discrete energy levels change with the size of the volume. This approach is relevant not only for nuclear physics, where lattice methods for few- and many-nucleon states complement phenomenological shell-model descriptions and ab initio calculations of atomic nuclei based on harmonic oscillator expansions, but also for other fields such as simulations of cold atomic systems. This contribution presents recent progress concerning finite-volume simulations of few-body systems. In particular, it discusses details regarding the efficient numerical implementation of separable interactions and it presents eigenvector continuation as a method for performing robust and efficient volume extrapolations.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, ISS 2022 contributio

Deep ALMA imaging of the merger NGC1614 - Is CO tracing a massive inflow of non-starforming gas?

Observations of the molecular gas over scales of 0.5 to several kpc provide crucial information on how gas moves through galaxies, especially in mergers and interacting systems, where it ultimately reaches the galaxy center, accumulates, and feeds nuclear activity. Studying the processes involved in the gas transport is an important step forward to understand galaxy evolution. 12CO, 13CO and C18O1-0 high-sensitivity ALMA observations were used to assess properties of the large-scale molecular gas reservoir and its connection to the circumnuclear molecular ring in NGC1614. The role of excitation and abundances were studied in this context. Spatial distributions of the 12CO and 13CO emission show significant differences. 12CO traces the large-scale molecular gas reservoir, associated with a dust lane that harbors infalling gas. 13CO emission is - for the first time - detected in the large-scale dust lane. Its emission peaks between dust lane and circumnuclear molecular ring. A 12CO-to-13CO1-0 intensity ratio map shows high values in the ring region (~30) typical for the centers of luminous galaxy mergers and even more extreme values in the dust lane (>45). This drop in ratio is consistent with molecular gas in the dust lane being in a diffuse, unbound state while being funneled towards the nucleus. We find a high 16O-to-18O abundance ratio in the starburst region (>900), typical of quiescent disk gas - by now, the starburst is expected to have enriched the nuclear ISM in 18O relative to 16O. The massive inflow of gas may be partially responsible for the low 18O/16O abundance since it will dilute the starburst enrichment with unprocessed gas from greater radii. The 12CO-to-13CO abundance is consistent with this scenario. It suggests that the nucleus of NGC1614 is in a transient phase of evolution where starburst and nuclear growth are fuelled by returning gas from the minor merger event.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&