Symmetry broken motion of a periodically driven Brownian particle: nonadiabatic regime

We report a theoretical study of an overdamped Brownian particle dynamics in the presence of both a spatially modulated one-dimensional periodic potential and a periodic alternating force (AF). As the periodic potential has a low symmetry (a ratchet potential) the Brownian particle displays a broken symmetry motion with a nonzero time average velocity. By making use of the Green function method and a mapping to the theory of Brillouin bands the probability distribution of the particle coordinate is derived and the nonlinear dependence of the macroscopic velocity on the frequency and the amplitude of AF is found. In particular, our theory allows to go beyond the adiabatic limit and to explain the peculiar reversal of the velocity sign found previously in the numerical analysis.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Coulomb blockade in metallic grains at large conductance

We study Coulomb blockade effects in the thermodynamic quantities of a weakly disordered metallic grain coupled to a metallic lead by a tunneling contact with a large conductance $g_T$. We consider the case of broken time-reversal symmetry and obtain expressions for both the {\em ensemble averaged} amplitude of the Coulomb blockade oscillations of the thermodynamic potential and the correlator of its {\em mesoscopic fluctuations} for a finite mean level spacing $\delta$ in the grain. We develop a novel method which allows for an exact evaluation of the functional integral arising from disorder averaging. The results and the method are applicable in the temperature range $\delta \ll T \ll E_C$.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures (revised version

Vortex Dynamics and the Hall-Anomaly: a Microscopic Analysis

We present a microscopic derivation of the equation of motion for a vortex in a superconductor. A coherent view on vortex dynamics is obtained, in which {\it both} hydrodynamics {\it and} the vortex core contribute to the forces acting on a vortex. The competition between these two provides an interpretation of the observed sign change in the Hall angle in superconductors with mean free path $l$ of the order of the coherence length $\xi$ in terms of broken particle-hole symmetry, which is related to details of the microscopic mechanism of superconductivity.Comment: 12 pages, late

Coulomb gap in a model with finite charge transfer energy

The Coulomb gap in a donor-acceptor model with finite charge transfer energy $\Delta$ describing the electronic system on the dielectric side of the metal-insulator transition is investigated by means of computer simulations on two- and three-dimensional finite samples with a random distribution of equal amounts of donor and acceptor sites. Rigorous relations reflecting the symmetry of the model presented with respect to the exchange of donors and acceptors are derived. In the immediate neighborhood of the Fermi energy $\mu$ the the density of one-electron excitations $g(\epsilon)$ is determined solely by finite size effects and $g(\epsilon)$ further away from $\mu$ is described by an asymmetric power law with a non-universal exponent, depending on the parameter $\Delta$.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Universal Spectral Correlations in Diffusive Quantum Systems

We have studied numerically several statistical properties of the spectra of disordered electronic systems under the influence of an Aharonov Bohm flux $\varphi$, which acts as a time--reversal symmetry breaking parameter. The distribution of curvatures of the single electron energy levels has a modified Lorentz form with different exponents in the GOE and GUE regime. It has Gaussian tails in the crossover regime. The typical curvature is found to vary as $-E_c\ln (E_c\varphi^2/\Delta)$ ($E_c$ is the Thouless energy and $\Delta$ the mean level spacing) and to diverge at zero flux. We show that the harmonics of the variation with $\varphi$ of single level quantities (current or curvature) are correlated, in contradiction with the perturbative result. The single level current correlation function is found to have a logarithmic behavior at low flux, in contrast to the pure symmetry cases. The distribution of single level currents is non--Gaussian in the GOE--GUE transition regime. We find a universal relation between $g_d$, the typical slope of the levels, and $g_c$, the width of the curvature distribution, as was proposed by Akkermans and Montambaux. We conjecture the validity of our results for any chaotic quantum system.Comment: 23 pages of RevTEX, 11 figures avaiable upon request; submitted to PRB; report number levs0