arXiv · 1005.0154
Thermalization of nonequilibrium electrons in quantum wires
Abstract
We study the problem of energy relaxation in a one-dimensional electron system. The leading thermalization mechanism is due to three-particle collisions. We show that for the case of spinless electrons in a single channel quantum wire the corresponding collision integral can be transformed into an exactly solvable problem. The latter is known as the Schrodinger equation for a quantum particle moving in a Poschl-Teller potential. The spectrum for the resulting eigenvalue problem allows for bound-state solutions, which can be identified with the zero modes of the collision integral, and a continuum of propagating modes, which are separated by a gap from the bound states. The inverse gap gives the time scale at which counterpropagating electrons thermalize.
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Tobias Micklitz, Alex Levchenko. 2011-09-20. Thermalization of nonequilibrium electrons in quantum wires. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.106.196402
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