Higher-order mesoscopic fluctuations in quantum wires: Conductance and current cumulants

We study conductance cumulants $>$ and current cumulants $C_j$ related to heat and electrical transport in coherent mesoscopic quantum wires near the diffusive regime. We consider the asymptotic behavior in the limit where the number of channels and the length of the wire in the units of the mean free path are large but the bare conductance is fixed. A recursion equation unifying the descriptions of the standard and Bogoliubov--de Gennes (BdG) symmetry classes is presented. We give values and come up with a novel scaling form for the higher-order conductance cumulants. In the BdG wires, in the presence of time-reversal symmetry, for the cumulants higher than the second it is found that there may be only contributions which depend nonanalytically on the wire length. This indicates that diagrammatic or semiclassical pictures do not adequately describe higher-order spectral correlations. Moreover, we obtain the weak-localization corrections to $C_j$ with $j\le 10$.Comment: 7 page

Diagrammatic method of integration over the unitary group, with applications to quantum transport in mesoscopic systems

A diagrammatic method is presented for averaging over the circular ensemble of random-matrix theory. The method is applied to phase-coherent conduction through a chaotic cavity (a ``quantum dot'') and through the interface between a normal metal and a superconductor.Comment: 37 pages RevTeX, 21 postscript figures include

Ballistic transport in disordered graphene

An analytic theory of electron transport in disordered graphene in a ballistic geometry is developed. We consider a sample of a large width W and analyze the evolution of the conductance, the shot noise, and the full statistics of the charge transfer with increasing length L, both at the Dirac point and at a finite gate voltage. The transfer matrix approach combined with the disorder perturbation theory and the renormalization group is used. We also discuss the crossover to the diffusive regime and construct a ``phase diagram'' of various transport regimes in graphene.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Localization in disordered superconducting wires with broken spin-rotation symmetry

Localization and delocalization of non-interacting quasiparticle states in a superconducting wire are reconsidered, for the cases in which spin-rotation symmetry is absent, and time-reversal symmetry is either broken or unbroken; these are referred to as symmetry classes BD and DIII, respectively. We show that, if a continuum limit is taken to obtain a Fokker-Planck (FP) equation for the transfer matrix, as in some previous work, then when there are more than two scattering channels, all terms that break a certain symmetry are lost. It was already known that the resulting FP equation exhibits critical behavior. The additional symmetry is not required by the definition of the symmetry classes; terms that break it arise from non-Gaussian probability distributions, and may be kept in a generalized FP equation. We show that they lead to localization in a long wire. When the wire has more than two scattering channels, these terms are irrelevant at the short distance (diffusive or ballistic) fixed point, but as they are relevant at the long-distance critical fixed point, they are termed dangerously irrelevant. We confirm the results in a supersymmetry approach for class BD, where the additional terms correspond to jumps between the two components of the sigma model target space. We consider the effect of random $\pi$ fluxes, which prevent the system localizing. We show that in one dimension the transitions in these two symmetry classes, and also those in the three chiral symmetry classes, all lie in the same universality class

Quantum Transparency of Anderson Insulator Junctions: Statistics of Transmission Eigenvalues, Shot Noise, and Proximity Conductance

We investigate quantum transport through strongly disordered barriers, made of a material with exceptionally high resistivity that behaves as an Anderson insulator or a ``bad metal'' in the bulk, by analyzing the distribution of Landauer transmission eigenvalues for a junction where such barrier is attached to two clean metallic leads. We find that scaling of the transmission eigenvalue distribution with the junction thickness (starting from the single interface limit) always predicts a non-zero probability to find high transmission channels even in relatively thick barriers. Using this distribution, we compute the zero frequency shot noise power (as well as its sample-to-sample fluctuations) and demonstrate how it provides a single number characterization of non-trivial transmission properties of different types of disordered barriers. The appearance of open conducting channels, whose transmission eigenvalue is close to one, and corresponding violent mesoscopic fluctuations of transport quantities explain at least some of the peculiar zero-bias anomalies in the Anderson-insulator/superconductor junctions observed in recent experiments [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 61}, 13037 (2000)]. Our findings are also relevant for the understanding of the role of defects that can undermine quality of thin tunnel barriers made of conventional band-insulators.Comment: 9 pages, 8 color EPS figures; one additional figure on mesoscopic fluctuations of Fano facto

Critical conductance of two-dimensional chiral systems with random magnetic flux

The zero temperature transport properties of two-dimensional lattice systems with static random magnetic flux per plaquette and zero mean are investigated numerically. We study the two-terminal conductance and its dependence on energy, sample size, and magnetic flux strength. The influence of boundary conditions and of the oddness of the number of sites in the transverse direction is also studied. We confirm the existence of a critical chiral state in the middle of the energy band and calculate the critical exponent nu=0.35 +/- 0.03 for the divergence of the localization length. The sample averaged scale independent critical conductance _c turns out to be a function of the amplitude of the flux fluctuations whereas the variance of the respective conductance distributions appears to be universal. All electronic states outside of the band center are found to be localized.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev.

Conductance length autocorrelation in quasi one-dimensional disordered wires

Employing techniques recently developed in the context of the Fokker--Planck approach to electron transport in disordered systems we calculate the conductance length correlation function $$ for quasi 1d wires. Our result is valid for arbitrary lengths L and $\Delta L$. In the metallic limit the correlation function is given by a squared Lorentzian. In the localized regime it decays exponentially in both L and $\Delta L$. The correlation length is proportional to L in the metallic regime and saturates at a value approximately given by the localization length $\xi$ as $L\gg\xi$.Comment: 23 pages, Revtex, two figure

Photon distribution amplitudes and light-cone wave functions in chiral quark models

The leading- and higher-twist distribution amplitudes and light-cone wave functions of real and virtual photons are analyzed in chiral quark models. The calculations are performed in the nonlocal quark model based on the instanton picture of QCD vacuum, as well as in the spectral quark model and the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with the Pauli-Villars regulator, which both treat interaction of quarks with external fields locally. We find that in all considered models the leading-twist distribution amplitudes of the real photon defined at the quark-model momentum scale are constant or remarkably close to the constant in the $x$ variable, thus are far from the asymptotic limit form. The QCD evolution to higher momentum scales is necessary and we carry it out at the leading order of the perturbative theory for the leading-twist amplitudes. We provide estimates for the magnetic susceptibility of the quark condensate $\chi_m$ and the coupling $f_{3\gamma}$, which in the nonlocal model turn out to be close to the estimates from QCD sum rules. We find the higher-twist distribution amplitudes at the quark model scale and compare them to the Wandzura-Wilczek estimates. In addition, in the spectral model we evaluate the distribution amplitudes and light-cone wave functions of the $\rho$-meson.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figure

Magnetic-Field Dependence of the Localization Length in Anderson Insulators

Using the conventional scaling approach as well as the renormalization group analysis in $d=2+\epsilon$ dimensions, we calculate the localization length $\xi(B)$ in the presence of a magnetic field $B$. For the quasi 1D case the results are consistent with a universal increase of $\xi(B)$ by a numerical factor when the magnetic field is in the range \ell\ll{\ell_{\!{_H}}}\alt\xi(0), $\ell$ is the mean free path, ${\ell_{\!{_H}}}$ is the magnetic length $\sqrt{\hbar c/eB}$. However, for $d\ge 2$ where the magnetic field does cause delocalization there is no universal relation between $\xi(B)$ and $\xi(0)$. The effect of spin-orbit interaction is briefly considered as well.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, no figures; to be published in Europhysics Letter

Localized to extended states transition for two interacting particles in a two-dimensional random potential

We show by a numerical procedure that a short-range interaction $u$ induces extended two-particle states in a two-dimensional random potential. Our procedure treats the interaction as a perturbation and solve Dyson's equation exactly in the subspace of doubly occupied sites. We consider long bars of several widths and extract the macroscopic localization and correlation lengths by an scaling analysis of the renormalized decay length of the bars. For $u=1$, the critical disorder found is $W_{\rm c}=9.3\pm 0.2$, and the critical exponent $\nu=2.4\pm 0.5$. For two non-interacting particles we do not find any transition and the localization length is roughly half the one-particle value, as expected.Comment: 4 two-column pages, 4 eps figures, Revtex, to be published in Europhys. Let