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arXiv · cond-mat/9511082

What is the Thouless Energy for Ballistic Systems?

Alexander Altland·Yuval Gefen·Gilles Montambaux
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Abstract

The Thouless energy, $\Ec$ characterizes numerous quantities associated with sensitivity to boundary conditions in diffusive mesoscopic conductors. What happens to these quantities if the disorder strength is decreased and a transition to the ballistic regime takes place? In the present analysis we refute the intuitively plausible assumption that $\Ec$ loses its meaning as an inverse diffusion time through the system at hand, and generally disorder independent scales take over. Instead we find that a variety of (thermodynamic) observables are still characterized by the Thouless energy.

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Alexander Altland, Yuval Gefen, Gilles Montambaux. 1995-11-16. What is the Thouless Energy for Ballistic Systems?. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.76.1130

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