Rotational levels in quantum dots

Low energy spectra of isotropic quantum dots are calculated in the regime of low electron densities where Coulomb interaction causes strong correlations. The earlier developed pocket state method is generalized to allow for continuous rotations. Detailed predictions are made for dots of shallow confinements and small particle numbers, including the occurance of spin blockades in transport.Comment: RevTeX, 10 pages, 2 figure

Gapped Phases of Quantum Wires

We investigate possible nontrivial phases of a two-subband quantum wire. It is found that inter- and intra-subband interactions may drive the electron system of the wire into a gapped state. If the nominal electron densities in the two subbands are sufficiently close to each other, then the leading instability is the inter-subband charge-density wave (CDW). For large density imbalance, the interaction in the inter-subband Cooper channel may lead to a superconducting instability. The total charge-density mode, responsible for the conductance of an ideal wire, always remains gapless, which enforces the two-terminal conductance to be at the universal value of 2e^2/h per occupied subband. On the contrary, the tunneling density of states (DOS) in the bulk of the wire acquires a hard gap, above which the DOS has a non-universal singularity. This singularity is weaker than the square-root divergency characteristic for non-interacting quasiparticles near a gap edge due to the "dressing" of massive modes by a gapless total charge density mode. The DOS for tunneling into the end of a wire in a CDW-gapped state preserves the power-law behavior due to the frustration the edge introduces into the CDW order. This work is related to the vast literature on coupled 1D systems, and most of all, on two-leg Hubbard ladders. Whenever possible, we give derivations of the important results by other authors, adopted for the context of our study.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures, to appear in "Interactions and Transport Properties of Lower Dimensional Systems", Lecture Notes in Physics, Springe

Impurity effects in few-electron quantum dots: Incipient Wigner molecule regime

Numerically exact path-integral Monte Carlo data are presented for $N\leq 10$ strongly interacting electrons confined in a 2D parabolic quantum dot, including a defect to break rotational symmetry. Low densities are studied, where an incipient Wigner molecule forms. A single impurity is found to cause drastic effects: (1) The standard shell-filling sequence with magic numbers $N=4,6,9$, corresponding to peaks in the addition energy $\Delta(N)$, is destroyed, with a new peak at N=8, (2) spin gaps decrease, (3) for N=8, sub-Hund's rule spin S=0 is induced, and (4) spatial ordering of the electrons becomes rather sensitive to spin. We also comment on the recently observed bunching phenomenon.Comment: 7 pages, 1 table, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter

Conductance quantization and snake states in graphene magnetic waveguides

We consider electron waveguides (quantum wires) in graphene created by suitable inhomogeneous magnetic fields. The properties of uni-directional snake states are discussed. For a certain magnetic field profile, two spatially separated counter-propagating snake states are formed, leading to conductance quantization insensitive to backscattering by impurities or irregularities of the magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, final version accepted as Rapid Comm. in PR

Ladder approximation to spin velocities in quantum wires

The spin sector of charge-spin separated single mode quantum wires is studied, accounting for realistic microscopic electron-electron interactions. We utilize the ladder approximation (LA) to the interaction vertex and exploit thermodynamic relations to obtain spin velocities. Down to not too small carrier densities our results compare well with existing quantum Monte-Carlo (QMC) data. Analyzing second order diagrams we identify logarithmically divergent contributions as crucial which the LA includes but which are missed, for example, by the self-consistent Hartree-Fock approximation. Contrary to other approximations the LA yields a non-trivial spin conductance. Its considerably smaller computational effort compared to numerically exact methods, such as the QMC method, enables us to study overall dependences on interaction parameters. We identify the short distance part of the interaction to govern spin sector properties.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Physical Review

Exchange interaction in quantum rings and wires in the Wigner-crystal limit

We present a controlled method for computing the exchange coupling in correlated one-dimensional electron systems based on the relation between the exchange constant and the pair-correlation function of spinless electrons. This relation is valid in several independent asymptotic regimes, including low electron density case, under the general condition of a strong spin-charge separation. Explicit formulas for the exchange constant are obtained for thin quantum rings and wires with realistic Coulomb interactions by calculating the pair-correlation function via a many-body instanton approach. A remarkably smooth interpolation between high and low electron density results is shown to be possible. These results are applicable to the case of one-dimensional wires of intermediate width as well. Our method can be easily generalized to other interaction laws, such as the inverse distance squared one of the Calogero-Sutherland-Moser model. We demonstrate excellent agreement with the known exact results for the latter model and show that they are relevant for a realistic experimental setup in which the bare Coulomb interaction is screened by an edge of a two-dimensional electron gas.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

The quantized Hall conductance of a single atomic wire: A proposal based on synthetic dimensions

We propose a method by which the quantization of the Hall conductance can be directly measured in the transport of a one-dimensional atomic gas. Our approach builds on two main ingredients: (1) a constriction optical potential, which generates a mesoscopic channel connected to two reservoirs, and (2) a time-periodic modulation of the channel, specifically designed to generate motion along an additional synthetic dimension. This fictitious dimension is spanned by the harmonic-oscillator modes associated with the tightly-confined channel, and hence, the corresponding "lattice sites" are intimately related to the energy of the system. We analyze the quantum transport properties of this hybrid two-dimensional system, highlighting the appealing features offered by the synthetic dimension. In particular, we demonstrate how the energetic nature of the synthetic dimension, combined with the quasi-energy spectrum of the periodically-driven channel, allows for the direct and unambiguous observation of the quantized Hall effect in a two-reservoir geometry. Our work illustrates how topological properties of matter can be accessed in a minimal one-dimensional setup, with direct and practical experimental consequences.

Proximity-induced superconductivity in Landau-quantized graphene monolayers

We consider massless Dirac fermions in a graphene monolayer in the ballistic limit, subject to both a perpendicular magnetic field B and a proximity-induced pairing gap Δ. When the chemical potential is at the Dirac point, our exact solution of the Bogoliubov–de Gennes equation yields Δ-independent relativistic Landau levels. Since eigenstates depend on Δ, many observables nevertheless are sensitive to pairing, e.g., the local density of states or the edge state spectrum. By solving the problem with an additional in-plane electric field, we also discuss how snake states are influenced by a pairing gap

Signatures of electron correlations in the transport properties of quantum dots

The transition matrix elements between the correlated $N$ and $N\!+\!1$ electron states of a quantum dot are calculated by numerical diagonalization. They are the central ingredient for the linear and non--linear transport properties which we compute using a rate equation. The experimentally observed variations in the heights of the linear conductance peaks can be explained. The knowledge of the matrix elements as well as the stationary populations of the states allows to assign the features observed in the non--linear transport spectroscopy to certain transition and contains valuable information about the correlated electron states.Comment: 4 pages (revtex,27kB) + 3 figures in one file ziped and uuencoded (postscript,33kB), to appear in Phys.Rev.B as Rapid Communicatio