Coulomb blockade at a tunnel junction between two quantum wires with long-range interaction

The non-linear current-voltage characteristic of a tunnel junction between two Luttinger systems is calculated for an interaction with finite range. Coulomb blockade features are found. The dissipative resistance, the capacitance and the external impedance, which were introduced ad hoc in earlier theories, are obtained in terms of the electron-electron interaction. The frequency dependence of the impedance is given by the excitation spectrum of the electrons.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX, 2 figures, to be published in Solid State Communication

Magnetic AC control of the spin textures in a helical Luttinger liquid

We demonstrate the possibility to induce and control peculiar spin textures in a helical Luttinger liquid, by means of a time-dependent magnetic scatterer. The presence of a perturbation that breaks the time-reversal symmetry opens a gap in the spectrum, inducing single-particle backscattering and a peculiar spin response. We show that in the weak backscattering regime asymmetric spin textures emerge at the left and right side of the scatterer, whose spatial oscillations are controlled by the ratio between the magnetization frequency and the Fermi energy and by the electron interaction. This peculiar spin response marks a strong difference between helical and non-helical liquids, which are expected to produce symmetric spin textures even in the AC regime.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

On ground states of interacting Composite Fermions with spin at half filling

The effects of interactions in a 2D electron system in a strong magnetic field of two degenerate Landau levels with opposite spins and at filling factors 1/2 are studied. Using the Chern-Simons gauge transformation, the system is mapped to Composite Fermions. The fluctuations of the gauge field induce an effective interaction between the Composite Fermions which can be attractive in both the particle-particle and in the particle-hole channel. As a consequence, a spin-singlet (s-wave) ground state of Composite Fermions can exist with a finite pair-breaking energy gap for particle-particle or particle-hole pairs. The competition between these two possible ground states is discussed. For long-range Coulomb interaction the particle-particle state is favored if the interaction strength is small. With increasing interaction strength there is a crossover towards the particle-hole state. If the interaction is short range, only the particle-particle state is possible.Comment: REVTEX; 12 pages, 5 figures; submitted to Phisical Review

Parity dependent Josephson current through a helical Luttinger liquid

We consider a superconductor-two dimensional topological insulator- superconductor junction (S-2DTI-S) and study how the 2{\pi}- and 4{\pi}-periodic Josephson currents are affected by the electron-electron interaction. In the long-junction limit the supercurrent can by evaluated by modeling the system as a helical Luttinger liquid coupled to superconducting reservoirs. After having introduced bosonization in the presence of the parity constraint we turn to consider the limit of perfect and poor interfaces. For transparent interfaces, where perfect Andreev reflections occur at the boundaries, the Josephson current is marginally affected by the interaction. On the contrary, if strong magnetic scatterers are present in the weak link, the situation changes dramatically. Here Coulomb interaction plays a crucial role both in low and high temperature regimes. Furthermore, a phase-shift of Josephson current can be induced by changing the direction of the magnetization of the impurity

Local fields in nonlinear quantum transport

We investigate the dynamical interplay between currents and electromagnetic fields in frequency-dependent transport through a single-channel quantum wire with an impurity potential in the presence of electron-electron interactions. We introduce and discuss a formalism which allows a self-consistent treatment of currents and electromagnetic fields.Comment: 4 page

Generating and controlling spin-polarized currents induced by a quantum spin Hall antidot

We study an electrically controlled quantum spin Hall antidot embedded in a two-dimensional topological insulating bar. Helical edge states around the antidot and along the edges of the bar are tunnel coupled. The close connection between spin and chirality, typical of helical systems, allows to generate a spin-polarized current flowing across the bar. This current is studied as a function of the external voltages, by varying the asymmetry between the barriers. For asymmetric setups, a switching behavior of the spin current is observed as the bias is increased, both in the absence and in the presence of electron interactions. This device allows to generate and control the spin-polarized current by simple electrical means.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Transient dynamics of spin-polarized injection in helical Luttinger liquids

We analyze the time evolution of spin-polarized electron wave packets injected into the edge states of a two-dimensional topological insulator. In the presence of electron interactions, the system is described as a helical Luttinger liquid and injected electrons fractionalize. However, because of the presence of metallic detectors, no evidences of fractionalization are encoded in dc measurements, and in this regime the system do not show deviations from its non-interacting behavior. Nevertheless, we show that the helical Luttinger liquid nature emerges in the transient dynamics, where signatures of charge/spin fractionalization can be clearly identified.Comment: Contribution for the special issue of Physica E in memory of Markus B\"uttiker. 4 figure

Energy exchange in driven open quantum systems at strong coupling

The time-dependent energy transfer in a driven quantum system strongly coupled to a heat bath is studied within an influence functional approach. Exact formal expressions for the statistics of energy dissipation into the different channels are derived. The general method is applied to the driven dissipative two-state system. It is shown that the energy flows obey a balance relation, and that, for strong coupling, the interaction may constitute the major dissipative channel. Results in analytic form are presented for a particular value of strong Ohmic dissipation. The energy flows show interesting behaviors including driving-induced coherences and quantum stochastic resonances.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Transport of fractional Hall quasiparticles through an antidot

Current statistics of an antidot in the fractional quantum Hall regime is studied for Laughlin's series. The chiral Luttinger liquid picture of edge states with a renormalized interaction exponent $g$ is adopted. Several peculiar features are found in the sequential tunneling regime. On one side, current displays negative differential conductance and double-peak structures when $g<1$. On the other side, universal sub-poissonian transport regimes are identified through an analysis of higher current moments. A comparison between Fano factor and skewness is proposed in order to clearly distinguish the charge of the carriers, regardless of possible non-universal interaction renormalizations. Super-poissonian statistics is obtained in the shot limit for $g<1$, and plasmonic effects due to the finite-size antidot are tracked.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B, references adde

Time-resolved pure spin fractionalization and spin-charge separation in helical Luttinger liquid based devices

Helical Luttinger liquids, appearing at the edge of two-dimensional topological insulators, represent a new paradigm of one-dimensional systems, where peculiar quantum phenomena can be investigated. Motivated by recent experiments on charge fractionalization, we propose a setup based on helical Luttinger liquids that allows to time-resolve, in addition to charge fractionalization, also spin-charge separation and pure spin fractionalization. This is due to the combined presence of spin-momentum locking and interactions. We show that electric time-resolved measurements can reveal both charge and spin properties, avoiding the need of magnetic materials. Although challenging, the proposed setup could be achieved with nowadays technologies, promoting helical liquids as interesting playgrounds to explore the effects of interactions in one dimension.Comment: main text + supplementary materia