Correlation Functions in Disordered Systems

{Recently, we found that the correlation between the eigenvalues of random hermitean matrices exhibits universal behavior. Here we study this universal behavior and develop a diagrammatic approach which enables us to extend our previous work to the case in which the random matrix evolves in time or varies as some external parameters vary. We compute the current-current correlation function, discuss various generalizations, and compare our work with the work of other authors. We study the distribution of eigenvalues of Hamiltonians consisting of a sum of a deterministic term and a random term. The correlation between the eigenvalues when the deterministic term is varied is calculated.}Comment: 19 pages, figures not included (available on request), Tex, NSF-ITP-93-12

Momentum noise in a quantum point contact

Ballistic electrons flowing through a constriction can transfer momentum to the lattice and excite a vibration of a free-standing conductor. We show (both numerically and analytically) that the electromechanical noise power P does not vanish on the plateaus of quantized conductance -- in contrast to the current noise. The dependence of $P$ on the constriction width can be oscillatory or stepwise, depending on the geometry. The stepwise increase amounts to an approximate quantization of momentum noise.Comment: 4 pages including 4 figure

Clauser-Horne inequality and decoherence in mesoscopic conductors

We analyze the effect of decoherence on the violation of the Clauser-Horne (CH) inequality for the full electron counting statistics in a mesoscopic multiterminal conductor. Our setup consists of an entangler that emits a flux of entangled electrons into two conductors characterized by a scattering matrix and subject to decoherence. Loss of phase memory is modeled phenomenologically by introducing fictitious extra leads. The outgoing electrons are detected using spin-sensitive electron counters. Given a certain average number of incoming entangled electrons, the CH inequality is evaluated as a function of the numbers of detected particles and on the various quantities characterizing the scattering matrix. When decoherence is turned on, we show that the amount of violation of the CH inequality is effectively reduced. Interestingly we find that, by adjusting the parameters of the system, there exists a protected region of $Q$ values for which violation holds for arbitrary strong decoherence.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Published versio

Environment-independent decoherence rate in classically chaotic systems

We study the decoherence of a one-particle system, whose classical correpondent is chaotic, when it evolves coupled to a weak quenched environment. This is done by analytical evaluation of the Loschmidt Echo, (i.e. the revival of a localized density excitation upon reversal of its time evolution), in presence of the perturbation. We predict an exponential decay for the Loschmidt Echo with a (decoherence) rate which is asymptotically given by the mean Lyapunov exponent of the classical system, and therefore independent of the perturbation strength, within a given range of strengths. Our results are consistent with recent experiments of Polarization Echoes in nuclear magnetic resonance and preliminary numerical simulations.Comment: No figures. Typos corrected and minor modifications to the text and references. Published versio

Correlations and fluctuations of a confined electron gas

The grand potential $\Omega$ and the response $R = - \partial \Omega /\partial x$ of a phase-coherent confined noninteracting electron gas depend sensitively on chemical potential $\mu$ or external parameter $x$. We compute their autocorrelation as a function of $\mu$, $x$ and temperature. The result is related to the short-time dynamics of the corresponding classical system, implying in general the absence of a universal regime. Chaotic, diffusive and integrable motions are investigated, and illustrated numerically. The autocorrelation of the persistent current of a disordered mesoscopic ring is also computed.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Orthogonality Catastrophe in Parametric Random Matrices

We study the orthogonality catastrophe due to a parametric change of the single-particle (mean field) Hamiltonian of an ergodic system. The Hamiltonian is modeled by a suitable random matrix ensemble. We show that the overlap between the original and the parametrically modified many-body ground states, $S$, taken as Slater determinants, decreases like $n^{-k x^2}$, where $n$ is the number of electrons in the systems, $k$ is a numerical constant of the order of one, and $x$ is the deformation measured in units of the typical distance between anticrossings. We show that the statistical fluctuations of $S$ are largely due to properties of the levels near the Fermi energy.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Effect of deconfinement on resonant transport in quantum wires

The effect of deconfinement due to finite band offsets on transport through quantum wires with two constrictions is investigated. It is shown that the increase in resonance linewidth becomes increasingly important as the size is reduced and ultimately places an upper limit on the energy (temperature) scale for which resonances may be observed.Comment: 6 pages, 6 postscript files with figures; uses REVTe

Universal parametric correlations in the transmission eigenvalue spectra of disordered conductors

We study the response of the transmission eigenvalue spectrum of disordered metallic conductors to an arbitrary external perturbation. For systems without time-reversal symmetry we find an exact non-perturbative solution for the two-point correlation function, which exhibits a new kind of universal behavior characteristic of disordered conductors. Systems with orthogonal and symplectic symmetries are studied in the hydrodynamic regime.Comment: 10 pages, written in plain TeX, Preprint OUTP-93-36S (University of Oxford), to appear in Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communication

Spectral form factor in a random matrix theory

In the theory of disordered systems the spectral form factor $S(\tau)$, the Fourier transform of the two-level correlation function with respect to the difference of energies, is linear for $\tau<\tau_c$ and constant for $\tau>\tau_c$. Near zero and near $\tau_c$ its exhibits oscillations which have been discussed in several recent papers. In the problems of mesoscopic fluctuations and quantum chaos a comparison is often made with random matrix theory. It turns out that, even in the simplest Gaussian unitary ensemble, these oscilllations have not yet been studied there. For random matrices, the two-level correlation function $\rho(\lambda_1,\lambda_2)$ exhibits several well-known universal properties in the large N limit. Its Fourier transform is linear as a consequence of the short distance universality of $\rho(\lambda_1,\lambda_2)$. However the cross-over near zero and $\tau_c$ requires to study these correlations for finite N. For this purpose we use an exact contour-integral representation of the two-level correlation function which allows us to characterize these cross-over oscillatory properties. The method is also extended to the time-dependent case.Comment: 36P, (+5 figures not included

Manifestation of Quantum Chaos in Electronic Band Structures

We use semiconductors as an example to show that quantum chaos manifests itself in the energy spectrum of crystals. We analyze the {\it ab initio} band structure of silicon and the tight-binding spectrum of the alloy $Al_xGa_{1-x}As$, and show that some of their statistical properties obey the universal predictions of quantum chaos derived from the theory of random matrices. Also, the Bloch momenta are interpreted as external, tunable, parameters, acting on the reduced (unit cell) Hamiltonian, in close analogy to Aharonov-Bohm fluxes threading a torus. They are used in the investigation of the parametric autocorrelator of crystal velocities. We find that our results are in good agreement with the universal curves recently proposed by Simons and coworkers.Comment: 15 pages with 6 Postscript figures included, RevTex-3, CMT-ERM/940