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

Enhanced Two-Channel Kondo Physics in a Quantum Box Device

We propose a design for a one-dimensional quantum box device where the charge fluctuations are described by an anisotropic two-channel Kondo model. The device consists of a quantum box in the Coulomb blockade regime, weakly coupled to a quantum wire by a single-mode point contact. The electron correlations in the wire produce strong back scattering at the contact, significantly increasing the Kondo temperature as compared to the case of non-interacting electrons. By employing boundary conformal field theory techniques we show that the differential capacitance of the box exhibits manifest two-channel Kondo scaling with temperature and gate voltage, uncontaminated by the one-dimensional electron correlations. We discuss the prospect to experimentally access the Kondo regime with this type of device.Comment: EPL style, 5 pages, 1 figure, final published versio

The Yang Lee Edge Singularity on Feynman Diagrams

We investigate the Yang-Lee edge singularity on non-planar random graphs, which we consider as the Feynman Diagrams of various d=0 field theories, in order to determine the value of the edge exponent. We consider the hard dimer model on phi3 and phi4 random graphs to test the universality of the exponent with respect to coordination number, and the Ising model in an external field to test its temperature independence. The results here for generic (``thin'') random graphs provide an interesting counterpoint to the discussion by Staudacher of these models on planar random graphs.Comment: LaTeX, 6 pages + 3 figure

Transport through a quantum dot with SU(4) Kondo entanglement

We investigate a mesoscopic setup composed of a small electron droplet (dot) coupled to a larger quantum dot (grain) also subject to Coulomb blockade as well as two macroscopic leads used as source and drain. An exotic Kondo ground state other than the standard SU(2) Fermi liquid unambiguously emerges: an SU(4) Kondo correlated liquid. The transport properties through the small dot are analyzed for this regime, through boundary conformal field theory, and allow a clear distinction with other regimes such as a two-channel spin state or a two-channel orbital state.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Inelastic Processes in the Collision of Relativistic Highly Charged Ions with Atoms

A general expression for the cross sections of inelastic collisions of fast (including relativistic) multicharged ions with atoms which is based on the genelazition of the eikonal approximation is derived. This expression is applicable for wide range of collision energy and has the standard nonrelativistic limit and in the ultrarelativistic limit coincides with the Baltz's exact solution ~\cite{art13} of the Dirac equation. As an application of the obtained result the following processes are calculated: the excitation and ionization cross sections of hydrogenlike atom; the single and double excitation and ionization of heliumlike atom; the multiply ionization of neon and argon atoms; the probability and cross section of K-vacancy production in the relativistic $U^{92+} - U^{91+}$ collision. The simple analytic formulae for the cross sections of inelastic collisions and the recurrence relations between the ionization cross sections of different multiplicities are also obtained. Comparison of our results with the experimental data and the results of other calculations are given.Comment: 25 pages, latex, 7 figures avialable upon request,submitted to PR

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

Optical and dc transport properties of a strongly correlated charge density wave system: exact solution in the ordered phase of the spinless Falicov-Kimball model with dynamical mean-field theory

We derive the dynamical mean-field theory equations for transport in an ordered charge-density-wave phase on a bipartite lattice. The formalism is applied to the spinless Falicov-Kimball model on a hypercubic lattice at half filling. We determine the many-body density of states, the dc charge and heat conductivities, and the optical conductivity. Vertex corrections continue to vanish within the ordered phase, but the density of states and the transport coefficients show anomalous behavior due to the rapid development of thermally activated subgap states. We also examine the optical sum rule and sum rules for the first three moments of the Green's functions within the ordered phase and see that the total optical spectral weight in the ordered phase either decreases or increases depending on the strength of the interactions.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Coulomb blockade oscillations of conductance in the regime of strong tunneling

We study the transport through a quantum dot coupled to two leads by single-mode point contacts. The linear conductance is calculated analytically as a function of a gate voltage and temperature T in the case when transmission coefficients of the contacts are close to unity. As a function of the gate voltage, the conductance shows Coulomb blockade oscillations. At low temperatures, the off-resonance conductance vanishes as T^2, in agreement with the theory of inelastic co-tunneling. Near a resonance, the low-energy physics is governed by a multi-channel Kondo fixed point.Comment: Revtex, 8 pages, 2 figure

Fractional plateaus in the Coulomb blockade of coupled quantum dots

Ground-state properties of a double-large-dot sample connected to a reservoir via a single-mode point contact are investigated. When the interdot transmission is perfect and the dots controlled by the same dimensionless gate voltage, we find that for any finite backscattering from the barrier between the lead and the left dot, the average dot charge exhibits a Coulomb-staircase behavior with steps of size e/2 and the capacitance peak period is halved. The interdot electrostatic coupling here is weak. For strong tunneling between the left dot and the lead, we report a conspicuous intermediate phase in which the fractional plateaus get substantially altered by an increasing slope.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, final versio

Some New Results on Complex-Temperature Singularities in Potts Models on the Square Lattice

We report some new results on the complex-temperature (CT) singularities of $q$-state Potts models on the square lattice. We concentrate on the problematic region $Re(a) < 0$ (where $a=e^K$) in which CT zeros of the partition function are sensitive to finite lattice artifacts. From analyses of low-temperature series expansions for $3 \le q \le 8$, we establish the existence, in this region, of complex-conjugate CT singularities at which the magnetization and susceptibility diverge. From calculations of zeros of the partition function, we obtain evidence consistent with the inference that these singularities occur at endpoints $a_e, \ a_e^*$ of arcs protruding into the (complex-temperature extension of the) FM phase. Exponents for these singularities are determined; e.g., for $q=3$, we find $\beta_e=-0.125(1)$, consistent with $\beta_e=-1/8$. By duality, these results also imply associated arcs extending to the (CT extension of the) symmetric PM phase. Analytic expressions are suggested for the positions of some of these singularities; e.g., for $q=5$, our finding is consistent with the exact value $a_e,a_e^*=2(-1 \mp i)$. Further discussions of complex-temperature phase diagrams are given.Comment: 26 pages, latex, with eight epsf figure