Using the self-consistent Hartree-Fock approximation for spinless electrons at zero temperature, we study the persistent current of the interacting electron gas in a one-dimensional continuous ring containing a single
δ barrier. We calculate the persistent current as a function of the ring circumference, magnetic flux threading the ring, barrier strength, etc. We compare our results with the results of correlated models like the Luttinger liquid model and the Hubbard model solved by means of the renormalization group. A good agreement is found. First, the persistent current decays with the increasing ring circumference (
L) faster than
L−1 and eventually like
L−α−1, where
α>0 depends only on the electron-electron interaction. Second, the persistent current is a sine-shaped function of magnetic flux. This sine-like dependence and in particular the universal power law
L−α−1 have sofar been believed to arise only in the correlated many-body models. Observation of these features within the Hartree-Fock model is a surprising result.
We present numerical results for the zero temperature persistent currents carried by interacting spinless electrons in disordered one-dimensional continuous rings. The disorder potential is described by a collection of δ-functions at random locations and strengths. The calculations are performed by a self-consistent Hartree–Fock (HF) approximation. Because the HF approximation retains the concept of single-electron levels, we compare the statistics of energy levels of noninteracting electrons with those of interacting electrons as well as of the level persistent currents. We find that the e–e interactions alter the levels and samples persistent currents and introduces a preffered diamagnetic current direction. In contrast to the analogous calculations that recently appeared in the literature for interacting spinless electrons in the presence of moderate disorder in tight-binding models we find no suppression of the persistent currents due to the e–e interactions.
Using the self-consistent Hartree-Fock approximation for spinless electrons at zero temperature, we study tunneling of the interacting electron gas through a single δ barrier in a finite one-dimensional wire connected to contacts.Our results exhibit features known from correlated many-body models.In particular, the conductance decays with the wire length as ∝ L -2α , where the power α is universal.We also show that a similar result for a wire conductance can be extracted from the persistent current (I) through the δ barrier in a one-dimensional ring, where it is known that I ∝ L -1-α .
We study the persistent current of correlated spinless electrons in a continuous one-dimensional ring with a single weak link. We include correlations by solving the many-body Schrodinger equation for several tens of electrons interacting via the short-ranged pair interaction V(x - x'). We solve this many-body problem by advanced configuration-interaction (CI) and diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) methods. Our CI and DMC results show, that the persistent current (I) as a function of the ring length (L) exhibits for large L the power law typical of the Luttinger liquid,
I∝L−1−α, where the power
α depends only on the electron-electron (e-e) interaction. For strong e-e interaction the previous theories predicted for
α the formula
α=(1+2αRG)1/2−1, where
αRG=[V(0)−V(2kF)]/2πℏvF is the renormalisation-group result for weakly interacting electrons, with V(q) being the Fourier transform of V(x-x'). Our numerical data show that this theoretical result holds in the continuous model only if the range of V(x - x') is small (roughly
d≲1/2kF, more precisely
4d2kF2<<1). For strong e-e interaction (
αRG>0.25) our CI data show the power law
I∝L−1−α already for rings with only ten electrons, i.e., ten electrons are already enough to behave like the Luttinger liquid. The DMC data for
αRG>0.25 are damaged by the so-called fixed-phase approximation. Finally, we also treat the e-e interaction in the Hartree-Fock approximation. We find the exponentially decaying I(L) instead of the power law, however, the slope of log(I(L)) still depends solely on the parameter
αRG as long as the range of V(x - x') approaches zero.
Persistent currents flowing through disordered mesoscopic rings threaded by a magnetic flux are investigated. Models of fermions with on-site interactions (Hubbard model) or models of spinless fermions with nearest neighbor interactions are considered on 2D cylinders with twisted boundary conditions in one direction to account for a magnetic flux. Self-consistent Hartree-Fock methods are used to treat the electron-electron interaction beyond first order. We show that the second harmonic of the current (which is relevant in the diffusive regime) is strongly suppressed by the interaction in the case of spinless fermions while it is significantly enhanced in the Hubbard model. Our data also strongly suggest that the reduction (increase) of this harmonic is related to a strong increase (reduction) of the spatial fluctuations of the charge density.
The persistent current in a lattice model of a one-dimensional interacting electron system is systematically studied using a complex version of the density-matrix renormalization group algorithm and the functional renormalization group method. We mainly focus on the situation where a single impurity is included in the ring penetrated by a magnetic flux. Due to the interplay of the electron-electron interaction and the impurity the persistent current in a system of N lattice sites vanishes faster than
1/N. Only for very large systems and large impurities our results are consistent with the Bosonization prediction obtained for an effective field theory. The results from the density-matrix renormalization group and the functional renormalization group agree well for interactions as large as half the bandwidth, even though as an approximation in the latter method the flow of the two-particle vertex is neglected. This confirms that the functional renormalization group method is a very powerful tool to investigate correlated electron systems. The method will become very useful for the theoretical description of the electronic properties of small conducting ring molecules.