arXiv subjects

B. Doucot

Publications and source records attributed to B. Doucot.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2002

Wilson's renormalization group applied to 2D lattice electrons in the presence of van Hove singularities

The weak coupling instabilities of a two dimensional Fermi system are investigated for the case of a square lattice using a Wilson renormalization group scheme to one loop order. We focus on a situation where the Fermi surface passes through two saddle points of the single particle dispersion. In the case of perfect nesting, the dominant instability is a spin density wave but d-wave superconductivity as well as charge or spin flux phases are also obtained in certain regions in the space of coupling parameters. The low energy regime in the vicinity of these instabilities can be studied analytically. Although saddle points play a major role (through their large contribution to the single particle density of states), the presence of low energy excitations along the Fermi surface rather than at isolated points is crucial and leads to an asymptotic decoupling of the various instabilities. This suggests a more mean-field like picture of these instabilities, than the one recently established by numerical studies using discretized Fermi surfaces.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2002

Pairing of Cooper Pairs in a Fully Frustrated Josephson Junction Chain

We study a one-dimensional Josephson junction chain embedded in a magnetic field. We show that when the magnetic flux per elementary loop equals half the superconducting flux quantum $ϕ_0=h/2e$, a local $\nbZ_2$ symmetry arises. This symmetry is responsible for a nematic Luttinger liquid state associated to bound states of Cooper pairs. We analyze the phase diagram and we discuss some experimental possibilities to observe this exotic phase.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2002

Shot-noise statistics in diffusive conductors

We study the full probability distribution of the charge transmitted through a mesoscopic diffusive conductor during a measurement time T. We have considered a semi-classical model, with an exclusion principle in a discretized single-particle phase-space. In the large T limit, numerical simulations show a universal probability distribution which agrees very well with the quantum mechanical prediction of Lee, Levitov and Yakovets [PRB {51} 4079 (1995)] for the charge counting statistics. Special attention is given to its third cumulant, including an analysis of finite size effects and of some experimental constraints for its accurate measurement.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

Strongly correlated hopping and many-body bound states

We study a system in which the quantum dynamics of electrons depend on the particle density in their neighborhood. For any on-site repulsive interaction, we show that the exact two-body and three-body ground states are bound states. We also discuss the finite density case in a mean-field framework and we show that the system can undergo an unusual transition from an effective attractive interaction to a repulsive one, when varying the electron density.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2001

Aharonov-Bohm cages in the GaAlAs/GaAs system

Aharonov-Bohm oscillations have been observed in a lattice formed by a two dimensional rhombus tiling. This observation is in good agreement with a recent theoretical calculation of the energy spectrum of this so-called T3 lattice. We have investigated the low temperature magnetotransport of the T3 lattice realized in the GaAlAs/GaAs system. Using an additional electrostatic gate, we have studied the influence of the channel number on the oscillations amplitude. Finally, the role of the disorder on the strength of the localization is theoretically discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

How to escape Aharonov-Bohm cages ?

We study the effect of disorder and interactions on a recently proposed magnetic field induced localization mechanism. We show that both partially destroy the extreme confinement of the excitations occuring in the pure case and give rise to unusual behavior. We also point out the role of the edge states that allows for a propagation of the electrons in these systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Interaction induced delocalisation for two particles in a periodic potential

We consider two interacting particles evolving in a one-dimensional periodic structure embedded in a magnetic field. We show that the strong localization induced by the magnetic field for particular values of the flux per unit cell is destroyed as soon as the particles interact. We study the spectral and the dynamical aspects of this transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

Nesting Induced Precursor Effects: a Renormalization Group Approach

We develop a controlled weak coupling renormalization group (RG) approach to itinerant electrons. Within this formalism we rederive the phase diagram for two-dimensional (2D) non-nested systems. Then we study how nesting modifies this phase diagram. We show that competition between p-p and p-h channels, leads to the manifestation of unstable precursor fixed points in the RG flow. This effect should be experimentally measurable, and may be relevant for an explanation of pseudogaps in the high temperature superconductors (HTC), as a crossover phenomenon.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

Spin Models on Non-Euclidean Hyperlattices: Griffiths Phases without Extrinsic Disorder

We study short-range ferromagnetic models residing on planar manifolds with global negative curvature. We show that the local metric properties of the embedding surface induce droplet formation from the boundary, resulting in the stability of a Griffiths phase at a temperature lower than that of the bulk transition. We propose that this behavior is independent of order parameter and hyperlattice specifics, and thus is universal for such non-Euclidean spin models. Their temperature-curvature phase diagrams are characterized by two distinct bulk and boundary transitions; each has mean-field critical behavior and a finite correlation length related to the curvature of the embedding surface. The implications for experiments on superconducting hyperlattice networks are also discussed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2000

Transmission through quantum networks

We propose a simple formalism to calculate the conductance of any quantum network made of one-dimensional quantum wires. We apply this method to analyze, for two periodic systems, the modulation of this conductance with respect to the magnetic field. We also study the influence of an elastic disorder on the periodicity of the AB oscillations and we show that a recently proposed localization mechanism induced by the magnetic field resists to such a perturbation. Finally, we discuss the relevance of this approach for the understanding of a recent experiment on GaAs/GaAlAs networks.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1998

Aharonov-Bohm cages in two-dimensional structures

We present an extreme localization mechanism induced by a magnetic field for tight-binding electrons in two-dimensional structures. This spectacular phenomenon is investigated for a large class of tilings (periodic, quasiperiodic, or random). We are led to introduce the Aharonov-Bohm cages defined as the set of sites eventually visited by a wavepacket that can, for particular values of the magnetic flux, be bounded. We finally discuss the quantum dynamics which exhibits an original pulsating behaviour.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1998

A Semi-Classical Analysis of Order from Disorder

We study in this paper the Heisenberg antiferromagnet with nearest neighbours interactions on the Husimi cactus, a system which has locally the same topology as the Kagomé lattice. This system has a huge classical degeneracy corresponding to an extensive number of degrees of freedom.We show that unlike thermal fluctuations, quantum fluctuations lift partially this degeneracy and favour a discrete subset of classical ground states. In order to clarify the origin of these effects, we have set up a general semi-classical analysis of the order from disorder phenomenon and clearly identified the differences between classical and quantum fluctuations. This semi-classical approach also enables us to classify various situations where a selection mechanism still occurs. Moreover, once a discrete set of ground states has been preselected, our analysis suggests that tunelling processes within this set should be the dominant effect underlying the strange low energy spectrum of Kagomé-like lattices.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1996

Instabilities in Chains Coupled by Two-Body Interactions

We derive a general set of Poor Man's scaling equations and analyze the stability of the Luttinger state in a system composed of a finite number N of one dimensional spinless fermionic chains, coupled through a general two body interaction. The effect of processes with momentum transfer parallel to the Fermi surface in destroying massless states is investigated. It will be shown that there are two processes competing: one in which two electrons exchange chains and the other in which they jump into a same chain. When periodic boundary conditions in the transverse direction are taken into account this competition leads always to massive states (except in hyperplanes of the phase diagram), a well known example being the generalized sine-Gordon model. If instead open boundary conditions are taken, massless states are possible but due to this competition the system is placed near instabilities. We argue that this kind of analysis has relevance for understanding the instabilities of 2D fermionic systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1996

nu=1/2 quantum Hall effect in the Aharonov-Casher geometry in a mesoscopic ring

We study the effect of an electric charge in the middle of a ring of electrons in a magnetic field such as $ν= 1/2$. In the absence of the central charge, a residual current should appear due to an Aharanov-Bohm effect. As the charge varies, periodic currents should appear in the ring. We evaluate the amplitude of these currents, as well as their period as the central charge varies. The presence of these currents should be a direct signature of the existence of a statistical gauge field in the $ν=1/2$ quantum Hall effect. Numerical diagonalizations for a small number of electrons on the sphere are also carried out. The numerical results up to 9 electrons are qualitatively consistent with the mean field picture.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1996

Monopoles in the gauge theory of the t-J model

We consider a RG approach for the plasma of magnetic monopoles of the Ioffe-Larkin approach to the t-J model. We first derive the interaction parameters of the 2+1 plasma of magnetic monopoles. The total charge along the time axis is constrained to be zero for each lattice plaquette. Under the one-plaquette approximation, the problem is equivalent to a one dimensional neutral plasma interacting via a potential $V(t) \sim t^α$, with $α=1/3$. The plasma is in a dipolar phase if $α\ge 1$ and a possibility of transition towards a Debye screening phase arises if $α< 1$, so that there exists a critical Fermi wave vector $k_f^{*}$ such as the plasma is Debye screening if $k_f k_f^{*}$. The 2+1 dimensional problem is treated numerically. We show that $k_f^{*}$ decreases and goes to zero as the number of colors increases. This suggests that the assumption of spin-charge decoupling within the slave-boson scheme is self-consistent at large enough values of $N$ and small enough doping. Elsewhere, a confining force between spinons and antiholons appears, suggesting a transition to a Fermi liquid state.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1995

Glassy Behavior in the Ferromagnetic Ising Model on a Cayley Tree

We present a detailed study of the nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic Ising model on a Cayley tree. In the limit of zero field, the system displays glassy behavior below a crossover temperature, $T_g$, that scales inversely with the logarithm of the number of generations; thus $T_g$ is inversely proportional to the logarithm of the logarithm of the number of sites. Non-Gaussian magnetization distributions are observed for $T < T_g$, reminiscent of that associated with the central spin of the Edwards-Anderson model on the same tree; furthermore a dynamical study indicates metastability, long relaxation times and ageing consistent with the development of glassy behavior for a finite but macroscopic number of sites.

cond-mat↗