Persistent currents in continuous one-dimensional disordered rings within the Hartree--Fock approximation

Abstract

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 delta-functions at random locations and strengths. The calculations are performed by a self-consistent Hartree-Fock (H-F) approximation. Because the H-F 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 alters 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.