The theoretical description of strongly correlated quantum systems out of equilibrium presents several challenges and a number of open questions persist. In this paper we focus on nonlinear electronic transport through an interacting quantum dot maintained at finite bias using a concept introduced by Hershfield [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2134 (1993)] whereby one can express such nonequilibrium quantum impurity models in terms of the system's Lippmann-Schwinger operators. These scattering operators allow one to reformulate the nonequilibrium problem as an effective equilibrium problem associated with a modified Hamiltonian. In this paper we provide a pedagogical analysis of the core concepts of the effective equilibrium theory. First, we demonstrate the equivalence between observables computed using the Schwinger-Keldysh framework and the effective equilibrium approach, and relate the Green's functions in the two theoretical frameworks. Second, we expound some applications of this method in the context of interacting quantum impurity models. We introduce a novel framework to treat effects of interactions perturbatively while capturing the entire dependence on the bias voltage. For the sake of concreteness, we employ the Anderson model as a prototype for this scheme. Working at the particle-hole symmetric point, we investigate the fate of the Abrikosov-Suhl resonance as a function of bias voltage and magnetic field.
A quantum impurity system out of equilibrium comprises two metallic reservoirs with different chemical potentials and one mediating spin impurity between them. We study the highly nonlinear tunneling conductance of this system, and clarify that three coherent peaks, one zero-bias peak and two side peaks, naturally appear in the tunneling conductance. We use the Liouvillian approach, in which a complete set of basis operators is available, and construct a Liouville matrix to obtain Green’s function at the mediating site. We show that the two coherent side peaks are the outcome of steady-state nonequilibrium combined with strong electron correlation at the mediating site. Tunneling in the quantum impurity system out of equilibrium is performed by an entangled state which is a linear combination of two Kondo singlets formed by the spin at the mediating site and the coherent spins in each reservoir. The fluctuation by incoherent spins is also included. The spectral weights and positions of the three coherent peaks are analytically discussed via atomic limit analysis. Our theoretical results well fit experimental data obtained for quantum point contacts with symmetric and asymmetric Kondo couplings.
We study non-equilibrium properties of a strongly correlated quantum dot system, represented by the single impurity Andersonmodel, by means of the recently introduced non-equilibrium variational cluster approach [1]. We focus on the steady-state current density and non-equilibrium density of states in a parameter region of high interaction strength in the particle-hole symmetric case, which lies in the center of the Kondo regime. The bias dependent current density shows a gradually developing two peak structure with increasing interaction strength. It agrees with the linear response result in the low bias region and vanishes as expected at high bias due to a vanishing band overlap. The non-equilibrium density of states exhibits a linear splitting of the Kondo resonance with applied bias voltage. We compare results obtained via non-equilibrium variational cluster approach with non-equilibrium cluster perturbation theory.
We present a comprehensive Fermi liquid description for thermoelectric transport and current noise, applicable to multilevel quantum dots (QD) and magnetic alloys (MA) without electron-hole or time-reversal symmetry. Our formulation for the low-energy transport is based on an Anderson model with
N discrete impurity levels, and is asymptotically exact at low energies, up to the next-leading order terms in power expansions with respect to temperature
T and bias voltage
eV. The expansion coefficients can be expressed in terms of the Fermi liquid parameters, which include the three-body correlation functions defined with respect to the equilibrium ground state in addition to the linear susceptibilities and the occupation number
Nd of impurity electrons. We apply this formulation to the
SU(N) symmetric QD and MA, and calculate the correlation functions for
N=4 and 6, using numerical renormalization group approach. The three-body correlations are shown to be determined by a single parameter over a wide range of electron fillings $1\ensuremath{\lesssim}{N}_{d}^{}\ensuremath{\lesssim}N\ensuremath{-}1$ for strong Coulomb interactions
U, and they also exhibit the plateau structures due to the
SU(N) Kondo effects at integer values of
Nd. We find that the Lorenz number $L=\ensuremath{\kappa}/(T\ensuremath{\sigma})$ for QD and MA, defined as the ratio of the thermal conductivity $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ to the electrical conductivity $\ensuremath{\sigma}$, deviates from the universal Wiedemann-Franz value ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{2}/(3{e}^{2})$ as the temperature increases from
T=0, showing the
T2 dependence, the coefficient for which depends on the three-body correlations away from half filling. Furthermore, we find that the current noise for the SU(4) quantum dots and that for SU(6) show a pronounced difference at the quarter
Nd/N=1/4 and
3/4 fillings. In particular, the linear noise for
N=4 exhibits a flat peak while the peak for
N=6 shows a round shape, reflecting the fact that, at these filling points, the
SU(N) Kondo effects occur for $N\ensuremath{\equiv}0$ (mod 4), whereas the intermediate-valence fluctuations occur for $N\ensuremath{\equiv}2$ (mod 4). We also demonstrate the role of three-body correlations on the nonlinear current noise and the other transport coefficients.
We investigate the transport through a few-level quantum system described by a Markovian master equation with temperature- and particle-density-dependent chemical potentials. From the corresponding Onsager relations we extract linear response transport coefficients in analogy to the electronic conductance, thermal conductance, and thermopower. Considering ideal Fermi and Bose gas reservoirs, we observe steady-state currents against the thermal bias as a result of the nonlinearities introduced by the constraint of a constant particle density in the reservoirs. Most importantly, we find signatures of the onset of Bose-Einstein condensation in the transport coefficients.
We present improvements of a recently introduced numerical method [E. Arrigoni et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 086403 (2013)] to compute steady-state properties of strongly correlated electronic systems out of equilibrium. The method can be considered as a nonequilibrium generalization of exact diagonalization based dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The key modification for the nonequilibrium situation consists in addressing the DMFT impurity problem within an auxiliary system consisting of the correlated impurity,
Nb uncorrelated bath sites, and two Markovian environments (sink and reservoir). Algorithmic improvements in the impurity solver allow to treat efficiently larger values of
Nb than previously in DMFT. This increases the accuracy of the results and is crucial for a correct description of the physical behavior of the system in the relevant parameter range including a semiquantitative description of the Kondo regime. To illustrate the approach, we consider a monoatomic layer of correlated orbitals, described by the single-band Hubbard model, attached to two metallic leads. The nonequilibrium situation is driven by a bias voltage applied to the leads. For this system, we investigate the spectral function and the steady-state current-voltage characteristics in the weakly as well as in the strongly interacting limit. In particular, we investigate the nonequilibrium behavior of quasiparticle excitations within the Mott gap of the correlated layer. We find for low-bias voltage Kondo-type behavior in the vicinity of the insulating phase. In particular, we observe a splitting of the Kondo resonance as a function of the bias voltage.