From integrability to conductance, impurity systems

Friedel's sum rule provides an explicit expression for a conductance functional, $\mathcal{G}[n]$, valid for the single impurity Anderson model at zero temperature. The functional is special because it does not depend on the interaction strength $U$. As a consequence, the Landauer conductance for the Kohn-Sham (KS) particles of density functional theory (DFT) coincides with the true conductance of the interacting system. The argument breaks down at temperatures above the Kond...

We review the conceptual structure of the Landauer theory of electron transport in the light of quantum kinetics, the orthodox framework for describing conductance at all scales. In a straightforward analysis, we assess popular claims for a rational link between Landauer theory on the one hand, and orthodox microscopics on the other. The need to explicitly include inelastic (dissipative) carrier relaxation is key to any well-posed microscopic model of open-system mesoscopic t...

The conductivity of an electron gas can be alternatively calculated either from the current--current or from the density--density correlation function. Here, we compare these two frequently used formulations of the Kubo formula for the two--dimensional Dirac electron gas by direct evaluations for several special cases. Assuming the presence of weak disorder we investigate perturbatively both formulas at and away from the Dirac point. While to zeroth order in the disorder ampl...

We introduce an integrable model of spin-polarized interacting electrons subject to a spin-conserving spin-orbit interaction. Using Bethe Ansatz and conformal field theory we calculate the exact large-time single-electron and density correlations and find that while the spin-orbit interaction enhances the single-electron Green's function, the density correlations get suppressed. Adding a localized impurity and coupling it to the electrons so that integrability is preserved, t...

It is pointed out that point defects on graphene are strongly correlated and can not be treated as independent scatters. In particular, for large on-site defect potential, it is shown that defects induce an impurity band with density of state characterized by the Wigner semi-circle law. We find that the impurity band enhances conductivity to the order of $4 e^2 /h $ and explains the absence of strong localization. Furthermore,the impurity band supports ferromagnetism with the...

We explain in this paper how a meaningful irrelevant perturbation theory around the infra-red (strong coupling) fixed point can be carried out for integrable quantum impurity problems. This is illustrated in details for the spin 1/2 Kondo model, where our approach gives rise to the complete low temperature expansion of the resistivity, beyond the well known $T^2$ Fermi liquid behaviour. We also consider the edge states tunneling problem, and demonstrate by Keldysh techniques ...

In both research and textbook literature one often finds two ``different'' Kubo formulas for the zero-temperature conductance of a non-interacting Fermi system. They contain a trace of the product of velocity operators and single-particle (retarded and advanced) Green operators: $\text{Tr} (\hat{v}_x \hat{G}^r \hat{v}_x \hat{G}^a)$ or $\text{Tr} (\hat{v}_x \text{Im} \hat{G} \hat{v}_x \text{Im} \hat{G})$. The study investigates the relationship between these expressions, as we...

We propose a new calculation of the DC conductance of a 1-dimensional electron system described by the Luttinger model. Our approach is based on the ideas of Landauer and B\"{u}ttiker and on the methods of current algebra. We analyse in detail the way in which the system can be coupled to external reservoirs. This determines whether the conductance is renormalized or not. We show that although a quantum wire and a Fractional Quantum Hall system are described by the same effec...

The conductivity in quasi two-dimensional systems is calculated using the quantum kinetic equation. Linearizing the Lenard-Balescu collision integral with the extension to include external field dependences allows one to calculate the conductivity with diagrams beyond the GW approximation including maximally crossed lines. Consequently the weak localization correction as an interference effect appears here from the field dependence of the collision integral (the latter depend...

In this expository article, we present a systematic formal derivation of the Kubo formula for the linear-response current due to a time-harmonic electric field applied to non-interacting, spinless charged particles in a finite volume in the quantum setting. We model dissipation in a transparent way by assuming a sequence of scattering events occurring at random-time intervals modeled by a Poisson distribution. By taking the large-volume limit, we derive special cases of the f...