Condensed Matter Theory

Abstract:

We study the influence of short-range electron-electron interactions on scaling behavior near the integer quantum Hall plateau transitions. Short-range interactions are known to be irrelevant at the renormalization group fixed point which represents the transition in the non-interacting system. We find, nevertheless, that transport properties change discontinuously when interactions are introduced. Most importantly, in the thermodynamic limit the conductivity at finite temperature is zero without interactions, but non-zero in the presence of arbitrarily weak interactions. In addition, scaling as a function of frequency, $\omega$, and temperature, $T$, is determined by the scaling variable $\omega/T^p$ (where $p$ is the exponent for the temperature dependence of the inelastic scattering rate) and not by $\omega/T$, as it would be at a conventional quantum phase transition described by an interacting fixed point. We express the inelastic exponent, $p$, and the thermal exponent, $z_T$, in terms of the scaling dimension, $-\alpha < 0$, of the interaction strength and the dynamical exponent $z$ (which has the value $z=2$), obtaining $p=1+2\alpha/z$ and $z_T=2/p$.

Abstract:

An effective field theoretic description of $\nu=1$ bilayer electron systems stabilized by Coulomb repulsion in a single wide quantum well is examined using renormalization group techniques. The system is found to undergo a crossover from a low temperature strongly correlated quantum Hall state to a high temperature compressible state. This picture is used to account for the recent experimental observation of an anomalous transition in bilayer electron systems (T. S. Lay, {\em et al.} Phys. Rev. B {\bf 50}, 17725 (1994)). An estimate for the crossover temperature is provided, and it is shown that its dependence on electron density is in reasonable agreement with i the experiment.

Abstract:

Statistical properties of eigenvectors in non-Hermitian random matrix ensembles are discussed, with an emphasis on correlations between left and right eigenvectors. Two approaches are described. One is an exact calculation for Ginibre's ensemble, in which each matrix element is an independent, identically distributed Gaussian complex random variable. The other is a simpler calculation using $N^{-1}$ as an expansion parameter, where $N$ is the rank of the random matrix: this is applied to Girko's ensemble. Consequences of eigenvector correlations which may be of physical importance in applications are also discussed. It is shown that eigenvalues are much more sensitive to perturbations than in the corresponding Hermitian random matrix ensembles. It is also shown that, in problems with time-evolution governed by a non- Hermitian random matrix, transients are controlled by eigenvector correlations.