#### 2018

[56]
We consider the impact of disorder on the spectrum of three-dimensional nodal-line semimetals. We show that the combination of disorder and a tilted spectrum naturally leads to a non-Hermitian self-energy contribution that can split a nodal line into a pair of exceptional lines. These exceptional lines form the boundary of an open and orientable bulk Fermi ribbon in reciprocal space on which the energy gap vanishes. We find that the surface of such a disorder-induced bulk Fermi ribbon in general lies orthogonal to the direction of the tilt, which can be exploited to realize a bulk Fermi ribbon with nontrivial topology by means of a tilt vector that twists along a nodal loop. Our results put forward a new paradigm for the exploration of non-Hermitian topological phases of matter.
[55]
We study a one-dimensional interacting quantum liquid hosting a pair of mobile impurities causing backscattering. We determine the effective retarded interaction between the two impurities mediated by the liquid. We show that for strong backscattering this interaction gives rise to resonances and antiresonances in the finite-frequency mobility of the impurity pair. At the antiresonances, the two impurities remain at rest even when driven by a (small) external force. At the resonances, their synchronous motion follows the external drive in phase and reaches maximum amplitude. Using a perturbative renormalization group analysis in quantum tunneling across the impurities, we study the range of validity of our model. We predict that these mechanical antiresonances are observable in experiments on ultracold atom gases confined to one dimension.
[54]
We employ the weak-coupling renormalization group approach to study unconventional superconducting phases emerging in the extended, repulsive Hubbard model on paradigmatic two-dimensional lattices. Repulsive interactions usually lead to higher-angular momentum Cooper pairing. By considering not only longer-ranged hoppings, but also non-local electron-electron interactions, we are able to find superconducting solutions for all irreducible representations on the square and hexagonal lattices, including extended regions of chiral topological superconductivity. For the square, triangular and honeycomb lattices, we provide detailed superconducting phase diagrams as well as the coupling strengths which quantify the corresponding critical temperatures depending on the bandstructure parameters, band filling, and interaction parameters. We discuss the sensitivity of the method with respect to the numerical resolution of the integration grid and the patching scheme. Eventually we show how to efficiently reach a high numerical accuracy.
[53]
Parafermions are emergent excitations which generalize Majorana fermions and are potentially relevant to topological quantum information. Using the concept of Fock parafermions, we present a mapping between lattice $Z_4$-parafermions and lattice spin-/2$fermions which preserves the locality of operators with$Z_4$symmetry. We use this to construct a one-dimensional fermionic Hamiltonian which hosts exact parafermionic edge states. We discuss their protection against various perturbations as well as their visibility in the fermionic spectral function. [52] We study the magnetotransport properties of patterned 3D topological insulator nanostructures with several leads, such as kinks or Y-junctions, near the Dirac point with analytical as well as numerical techniques. The interplay of the nanostructure geometry, the external magnetic field, and the spin-momentum locking of the topological surface states lead to a richer magnetoconductance phenomenology as compared to straight nanowires. Similar to straight wires, a quantized conductance with perfect transmission across the nanostructure can be realized across a kink when the input and output channels are pierced by a half-integer magnetic flux quantum. Unlike for straight wires, there is an additional requirement depending on the orientation of the external magnetic field. A right-angle kink shows a unique$\pi-periodic magnetoconductance signature as a function of the in-plane angle of the magnetic field. For a Y-junction, the transmission can be perfectly steered to either of the two possible output legs by a proper alignment of the external magnetic field. These magnetotransport signatures offer new ways to explore topological surface states and could be relevant for quantum transport experiments on nanostructures which can be realized with existing fabrication methods. [51] We study nonequilibrium thermodynamics in a fermionic resonant-level model with arbitrary coupling strength to a fermionic bath, taking the wide-band limit. In contrast to previous theories, we consider a system where both the level energy and the coupling strength depend explicitly on time. We find that, even in this generalized model, consistent thermodynamic laws can be obtained, up to the second order in the drive speed, by splitting the coupling energy symmetrically between system and bath. We define observables for the system energy, work, heat, and entropy, and calculate them using nonequilibrium Green's functions. We find that the observables fulfill the laws of thermodynamics, and connect smoothly to the known equilibrium results. [50] It has been shown that a quantum quench of interactions in a one-dimensional fermion system at zero temperature induces a universal power law\propto t^-2$in its long-time dynamics. In this paper we demonstrate that this behaviour is robust even in the presence of thermal effects. The system is initially prepared in a thermal state, then at a given time the bath is disconnected and the interaction strength is suddenly quenched. The corresponding effects on the long times dynamics of the non-equilibrium fermionic spectral function are considered. We show that the non-universal power laws, present at zero temperature, acquire an exponential decay due to thermal effects and are washed out at long times, while the universal behaviour$\propto t^-2$is always present. To verify our findings, we argue that these features are also visible in transport properties at finite temperature. The long-time dynamics of the current injected from a biased probe exhibits the same universal power law relaxation, in sharp contrast with the non-quenched case which features a fast exponential decay of the current towards its steady value, and thus represents a fingerprint of quench-induced dynamics. Finally, we show that a proper tuning of the probe temperature, compared to that of the one-dimensional channel, can enhance the visibility of the universal power-law behaviour. [49] We establish a theoretical method which goes beyond the weak-coupling and Markovian approximations while remaining intuitive, using a quantum master equation in a larger Hilbert space. The method is applicable to all impurity Hamiltonians tunnel coupled to one (or multiple) baths of free fermions. The accuracy of the method is in principle not limited by the system-bath coupling strength, but rather by the shape of the spectral density and it is especially suited to study situations far away from the wide-band limit. In analogy to the bosonic case, we call it the fermionic reaction coordinate mapping. As an application, we consider a thermoelectric device made of two Coulomb-coupled quantum dots. We pay particular attention to the regime where this device operates as an autonomous Maxwell demon shoveling electrons against the voltage bias thanks to information. Contrary to previous studies, we do not rely on a Markovian weak-coupling description. Our numerical findings reveal that in the regime of strong coupling and non-Markovianity, the Maxwell demon is often doomed to disappear except in a narrow parameter regime of small power output. [48] We study the effect of electron-phonon interactions on the electrical conductance of a helical edge state of a two-dimensional topological insulator. We show that the edge deformation caused by bulk acoustic phonons modifies the spin texture of the edge state, and that the resulting spin-phonon coupling leads to inelastic backscattering which makes the transport diffusive. Using a semiclassical Boltzmann equation we compute the electrical conductivity and show that it exhibits a metallic Bloch-Grüneisen law. At temperatures on the order of the Debye temperature of the host material, spin-phonon scattering thus drastically lowers the conductivity of the edge state. Transport remains ballistic only for short enough edges, and in this case the correction to the quantized conductance vanishes as$\delta G \propto T^5$at low temperatures. Relying only on parallel transport of the helical spin texture along the deformed edge, the coupling strength is determined by the host material's density and sound velocity. Our results impose fundamental limits for the finite-temperature conductivity of a helical edge channel. #### 2017 [47] The interaction between electrons and the vibrational degrees of freedom of a molecular quantum dot can lead to an exponential suppression of the conductance, an effect which is commonly termed Franck-Condon blockade. Here, we investigate this effect in a quantum dot driven by time-periodic gate voltages and tunneling amplitudes using nonequilibrium Green's functions and a Floquet expansion. Building on previous results showing that driving can lift the Franck-Condon blockade, we investigate driving protocols which can be used to pump charge across the quantum dot. In particular, we show that due to the strongly coupled nature of the system, the pump current at resonance is an exponential function of the drive strength. [46] Two-particle backscattering in time-reversal invariant interacting helical electron systems can lead to the formation of quasiparticles with charge$e/2$. We propose a way to detect such states by means of the Josephson effect in the presence of proximity-induced superconductivity. In this case, the existence of$e/2$charges leads to an \pi$-periodic component of the Josephson current which can be identified through measurement of Shapiro steps in Josephson junctions. In particular, we show that even when there is weak explicit time-reversal symmetry breaking, which causes the two-particle backscattering to be a sub-leading effect at low energies, its presence can still be detected in driven, current-biased Shapiro step measurements. The disappearance of some of these steps as a function of the drive frequency is directly related to the existence of non-Abelian zero-energy states. We suggest that this effect can be measured in current state-of-the-art Rashba wires.
[45]
We study the problem of injecting single electrons into interacting one-dimensional quantum systems, a fundamental building block for electron quantum optics. It is well known that such injection leads to charge and energy fractionalization. We elucidate this concept by calculating the nonequilibrium electron distribution function in the momentum and energy domains after the injection of an energy-resolved electron. Our results shed light on how fractionalization occurs via the creation of particle-hole pairs by the injected electron. In particular, we focus on systems with a pair of counterpropagating channels, and we fully analyze the properties of each chiral fractional excitation which is created by the injection. We suggest possible routes to access their energy and momentum distribution functions in topological quantum Hall or quantum spin-Hall edge states.
[44]
We study the effect of Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on the charge and spin degrees of freedom of a quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) Wigner crystal. As electrons in a quasi-1D Wigner crystal can move in the transverse direction, SOC cannot be gauged away in contrast to the pure 1D case. We show that for weak SOC, a partial gap in the spectrum opens at certain ratios between the density of electrons and the inverse Rashba length. We present how the low-energy branch of charge degrees of freedom deviates due to SOC from its usual linear dependence at small wave vectors. In the case of strong SOC, we show that the spin sector of a Wigner crystal cannot be described by an isotropic antiferromagnetic Heisenberg Hamiltonian anymore and that instead the ground state of neighboring electrons is mostly a triplet state. We present a new spin sector Hamiltonian and discuss the spectrum of a Wigner crystal in this limit.

#### 2016

[43]
A Cooper pair splitter consists of two quantum dots side-coupled to a conventional superconductor. Usually, the quantum dots are assumed to have a large charging energy compared to the superconducting gap, in order to suppress processes other than the coherent splitting of Cooper pairs. In this work, in contrast, we investigate the limit in which the charging energy is smaller than the superconducting gap. This allows us, in particular, to study the effect of a Zeeman field comparable to the charging energy. We find analytically that in this parameter regime the superconductor mediates an interdot tunneling term with a spin symmetry determined by the Zeeman field. Together with electrostatically tunable quantum dots, we show that this makes it possible to engineer a spin triplet state shared between the quantum dots. Compared to previous works, we thus extend the capabilities of the Cooper pair splitter to create entangled nonlocal electron pairs.
[42]
Topology in condensed matter physics manifests itself in the emergence of edge or surface states protected by underlying symmetries. We review two-dimensional topological insulators whose one-dimensional edge states are characterized by spin-momentum locking and protected by time-reversal symmetry. We focus in particular on their transport properties in the presence of electron interactions, which can allow the onset of different backscattering mechanisms, thus leading to deviations from the quantized conductance observed in the ballistic regime. The combined presence of helicity and electron interactions creates a new paradigm of the one-dimensional world called helical Luttinger liquid, whose theoretical properties and experimental observations are reviewed.
[41]
The realization of single-electron sources in integer quantum Hall systems has paved the way for exploring electronic quantum optics experiments in solid-state devices. In this paper, we characterize a single Kramers pair emitter realized by a driven antidot embedded in a two-dimensional topological insulator, where spin-momentum locked edge states can be exploited for generating entanglement. Contrary to previous proposals, the antidot is coupled to both edges of a quantum spin Hall bar, thus enabling this mesoscopic capacitor to emit an entangled two-electron state. We study the concurrence C of the emitted state and the efficiency F of its emission as a function of the different spin-preserving and spin-flipping tunnel couplings of the antidot with the edges. We show that the efficiency remains very high ($F\geq 50\%$) even for maximally entangled states (C=1). We also discuss how the entanglement can be probed by means of noise measurements and violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality.
[40]
Electron-vibron coupling in quantum dots can lead to a strong suppression of the average current in the sequential tunneling regime. This effect is known as Franck-Condon blockade and can be traced back to an overlap integral between vibron states with different electron numbers which becomes exponentially small for large electron-vibron coupling strength. Here, we investigate the effect of a time-dependent drive on this phenomenon, in particular the effect of an oscillatory gate voltage acting on the electronic dot level. We employ two different approaches: perturbation theory based on nonequilibrium Keldysh Green's functions and a master equation in Born-Markov approximation. In both cases, we find that the drive can lift the blockade by exciting vibrons. As a consequence, the relative change in average current grows exponentially with the drive strength.
[39]
It has been proposed that adding disorder to a topologically trivial mercury telluride/cadmium telluride (HgTe/CdTe) quantum well can induce a transition to a topologically nontrivial state. The resulting state was termed topological Anderson insulator and was found in computer simulations of the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model. Here, we show that the topological Anderson insulator is a more universal phenomenon and also appears in the Kane-Mele model of topological insulators on a honeycomb lattice. We numerically investigate the interplay of the relevant parameters, and establish the parameter range in which the topological Anderson insulator exists. A staggered sublattice potential turns out to be a necessary condition for the transition to the topological Anderson insulator. For weak enough disorder, a calculation based on the lowest-order Born approximation reproduces quantitatively the numerical data. Our results thus considerably increase the number of candidate materials for the topological Anderson insulator phase.
[38]
A partially gapped spectrum due to the application of a magnetic field is one of the main probes of Rashba spin-orbit coupling in nanowires. Such a “helical gap” manifests itself in the linear conductance, as well as in dynamic response functions such as the spectral function, the structure factor, or the tunneling density of states. In this paper we investigate theoretically the signature of the helical gap in these observables with a particular focus on the interplay between Rashba spin-orbit coupling and electron-electron interactions. We show that in a quasi-one-dimensional wire, interactions can open a helical gap even without magnetic field. We calculate the dynamic response functions using bosonization, a renormalization group analysis, and the exact form factors of the emerging sine-Gordon model. For special interaction strengths, we verify our results by re-fermionization. We show how the two types of helical gaps, caused by magnetic fields or interactions, can be distinguished in experiments.
[37]
We investigate electron transport through an antidot embedded in a narrow strip of a two-dimensional topological insulator. We focus on the most generic and experimentally relevant case with broken axial spin symmetry. Spin-nonconservation allows additional scattering processes, which change the transport properties profoundly. We start from an analytical model for noninteracting transport, which we also compare with a numerical tight-binding simulation. We then extend this model by including Coulomb repulsion on the antidot, and we study the transport in the Coulomb-blockade limit. We investigate sequential tunneling and cotunneling regimes, and we find that the current-voltage characteristic allows a spectroscopic measurement of the edge-state spin textures.
[36]
Rashba spin-orbit coupling and a magnetic field perpendicular to the Rashba axis have been predicted to open a partial gap (“helical gap”) in the energy spectrum of noninteracting or weakly interacting one-dimensional quantum wires. By comparing kinetic energy and Coulomb energy we show that this gap opening typically occurs at low electron densities where the Coulomb energy dominates. To address this strongly correlated limit, we investigate Rashba wires using Wigner crystal theory. We find that the helical gap exists even in the limit of strong interactions but its dependence on electron density differs significantly from the weakly interacting case. In particular, we find that the critical magnetic field for opening the gap becomes an oscillatory function of electron density. This changes strongly the expected signature of the helical gap in conductance measurements.

#### 2015

[35]
We investigate narrow quantum wires with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling and electron-electron interactions. We show that virtual transitions between subbands lead to umklapp scattering which can open a partial gap in the spectrum even in the presence of time-reversal symmetry. Using the superconducting proximity effect to gap out the remaining modes, we show that the system can host zero-energy states at its edges, which are protected by time-reversal symmetry. We present the parameter regime in which these bound states will emerge. Similarly to Majorana bound states, they will produce a zero-bias peak in the differential conductance. In contrast to the Majorana fermions, however, their fourfold degeneracy leads to an \pi$periodicity of the Josephson current due to tunneling of fractionalized excitations with charge$e/2$. [34] We propose and study the charge transport through single and double quantum point contacts setup between helical Majorana modes and an interacting helical Luttinger liquid. We show that the differential conductance decreases for stronger repulsive interactions and that the point contacts become insulating above a critical interaction strength. For a single-point contact, the differential conductance as a function of bias voltage shows a series of peaks due to Andreev reflection of electrons in the Majorana modes. In the case of two point contacts, interference phenomena make the structure of the individual resonance peaks less universal and show modulations with different separation distance between the contacts. For small separation distance, the overall features remain similar to the case of a single-point contact. [33] Based on the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity, the coherent splitting of Cooper pairs from a superconductor to two spatially separated quantum dots has been predicted to generate nonlocal pairs of entangled electrons. In order to test this hypothesis, we propose a scheme to transfer the spin state of a split Cooper pair onto the polarization state of a pair of optical photons. We show that the photon pairs produced can be used to violate a Bell inequality, unambiguously demonstrating the entanglement of the split Cooper pairs. [32] The interplay between bulk spin-orbit coupling and electron-electron interactions produces umklapp scattering in the helical edge states of a two-dimensional topological insulator. If the chemical potential is at the Dirac point, umklapp scattering can open a gap in the edge state spectrum even if the system is time-reversal invariant. We determine the zero-energy bound states at the interfaces between a section of a helical liquid which is gapped out by the superconducting proximity effect and a section gapped out by umklapp scattering. We show that these interfaces pin charges which are multiples of$e/2$, giving rise to a Josephson current with \pi$ periodicity. Moreover, the bound states, which are protected by time-reversal symmetry, are fourfold degenerate and can be described as $Z_4$ parafermions. We determine their braiding statistics and show how braiding can be implemented in topological insulator systems.
[31]
We study the spin texture of a generic helical liquid, the edge modes of a two-dimensional topological insulator with broken axial spin symmetry. By considering honeycomb and square-lattice realizations of topological insulators, we show that in all cases the generic behavior of a momentum-dependent rotation of the spin quantization axis is realized. Here we establish this mechanism also for disk geometries with continuous rotational symmetry. Finally, we demonstrate that the rotation of spin-quantization axis remains intact for arbitrary geometries, i.e., in the absence of any continuous symmetry. We also calculate the dependence of this rotation on the model and material parameters. Finally, we propose a spectroscopy measurement which should directly reveal the rotation of the spin-quantization axis of the helical edge states.
[30]
We study the full counting statistics of interferometers for chiral Majorana fermions with two incoming and two outgoing Dirac fermion channels. In the absence of interactions, the FCS can be obtained from the 4x4 scattering matrix S that relates the outgoing Dirac fermions to the incoming Dirac fermions. After presenting explicit expressions for the higher-order current correlations for a modified Hanbury Brown-Twiss interferometer, we note that the cumulant-generating function can be interpreted such that unit-charge transfer processes correspond to two independent half-charge transfer processes, or alternatively, to two independent electron-hole conversion processes. By a combination of analytical and numerical approaches, we verify that this factorization property holds for a general SO(4) scattering matrix, i.e. for a general interferometer geometry.

#### 2014

[29]
We investigate an ensemble of excitons in a coupled quantum well excited via an applied laser field. Using an effective disordered quantum Ising model, we perform a numerical simulation of the experimental procedure and calculate the probability distribution function P(M) to create M excitons as well as their correlation function. It shows clear evidence of the existence of two phases corresponding to a liquid and a crystal phase. We demonstrate that not only the correlation function but also the distribution P(M) is very well suited to monitor this transition.
[28]
We calculate the dynamical structure factor $S(q,\omega)$ of a weakly interacting helical edge state in the presence of a magnetic field $B$. The latter opens a gap of width B$in the single-particle spectrum, which becomes strongly nonlinear near the Dirac point. For chemical potentials$|\mu|>B$, the system then behaves as a nonlinear helical Luttinger liquid, and a mobile-impurity analysis reveals power-law singularities in$S(q,\omega)$which depend on the interaction strength as well as on the spin texture of the edge states. For$|\mu|
[27]
We investigate Josephson junctions on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator in planar, step, and edge geometries. The elliptical nature of the Dirac cone representing the side surface states of the topological insulator results in a scaling factor in the Josephson current in a step junction as compared to the planar junction. In edge junctions, the contribution of the Andreev bound states to the Josephson current vanishes due to spin-momentum locking of the surface states. Furthermore, we consider a junction with a ferromagnetic insulator between the superconducting regions. In these ferromagnetic junctions, we find an anomalous finite Josephson current at zero phase difference if the magnetization is pointing along the junction (and perpendicular to the Josephson current). An out-of-plane magnetization with respect to the central region of the junction opens up an exchange gap and leads to a nonmonotonic behavior of the critical Josephson current for sufficiently large magnetization as the chemical potential increases.
[26]
We investigate electron transport through multiterminal networks hosting Majorana bound states (MBS) in the framework of full counting statistics. In particular, we apply our general results to T-shaped junctions of two Majorana nanowires. When the wires are in the topologically nontrivial regime, three MBS are localized near the outer ends of the wires, while one MBS is localized near the crossing point, and when the lengths of the wires are finite adjacent MBS can overlap. We propose a combination of current and cross-correlation measurements to reveal the predicted coupling of four Majoranas in a topological T junction. Interestingly, we show that the elementary transport processes at the central lead are different compared to the outer leads, giving rise to characteristic nonlocal signatures in electronic transport. We find quantitative agreement between our analytical model and numerical simulations of a tight-binding model. Using the numerical simulations, we discuss the effect of weak disorder on the current and the cross-correlation functions.

#### 2013

[25]
We examine dissipation effects in a multichannel quantum RC circuit, comprising a cavity or single-electron box capacitively coupled to a gate and connected to a reservoir lead via several conducting channels. Depending on the engineering details of the quantum RC circuit, the number of channels contributing to transport varies, as does the form of the interchannel couplings. For low-frequency ac transport, the charge-relaxation resistance (Rq) is a nontrivial function of the parameters of the system. However, in the vicinity of the charge-degeneracy points and for weak tunneling, we find as a result of cross-mode mixing or channel asymmetry that Rq becomes universal for a metallic cavity at low temperatures, and equals the unit of quantum resistance. To prove this universality, we map the system to an effective one-channel Kondo model, and construct an analogy with the Coulomb gas. Next, we probe the opposite regime of near-perfect transmission using a bosonization approach. Focusing on the two-channel case, we study the effect of backscattering at the lead-dot interface, more specifically, the role of an asymmetry in the backscattering amplitudes, and make a connection with the weak-tunneling regime near the charge-degeneracy points.
[24]
We consider two helical liquids on opposite edges of a two-dimensional topological insulator, which are connected by one or several local tunnel junctions. In the presence of spatially inhomogeneous Rashba spin-orbit coupling, the spin of the helical edge states is momentum dependent, and this spin texture can be different on opposite edges. We demonstrate that this has a strong impact on the electron transport between the edges. In particular, in the case of many random tunnel contacts, the localization length depends strongly on the spin textures of the edge states.
[23]
We propose microwave-controlled rotations for qubits realized as Majorana bound states. To this end, we study an inhomogeneous Kitaev chain in a microwave cavity. The chain consists of two topologically nontrivial regions separated by a topologically trivial, gapped region. The Majorana bound states at the interfaces between the left (right) regions and the central region are coupled, and their energies are split by virtual cotunneling processes. The amplitude for these cotunneling processes decreases exponentially with the number of sites of the gapped region, and the decay length diverges as the gap of the topologically trivial region closes. We demonstrate that microwave radiation can exponentially enhance the coupling between the Majorana bound states, both for classical and quantized electric fields. By solving the appropriate Liouville equation numerically, we show that microwaves can drive Rabi oscillations in the Majorana sector. Our model emerges as an effective description of a topological semiconductor nanowire in a microwave cavity. Thus, our proposal provides an experimentally feasible way to obtain full single-qubit control necessary for universal quantum computation with Majorana qubits.
[22]
Majorana bound states have been proposed as building blocks for qubits on which certain operations can be performed in a topologically protected way using braiding. However, the set of these protected operations is not sufficient to realize universal quantum computing. We show that the electric field in a microwave cavity can induce Rabi oscillations between adjacent Majorana bound states. These oscillations can be used to implement an additional single-qubit gate. Supplemented with one braiding operation, this gate allows us to perform arbitrary single-qubit operations.
[21]
We calculate the finite-temperature conductance of clean, weakly interacting one-dimensional quantum wires subject to Rashba spin-orbit coupling and a magnetic field. For chemical potentials near the center of the Zeeman gap ($\mu=0$), two-particle scattering causes the leading deviation from the quantized conductance at finite temperatures. On the other hand, for $|\mu| > 0$, three-particle scattering processes become more relevant. These deviations are a consequence of the strongly nonlinear single-particle spectrum, and are thus not accessible using Luttinger liquid theory. We discuss the observability of these predictions in current experiments on InSb nanowires and in spiral liquids,'' where a spontaneous ordering of the nuclear spins at low temperatures produces an effective Rashba coupling.
[20]
We study transport through a double quantum dot system in which each quantum dot is coupled to a phonon mode. Such a system can be realized, e.g., using a suspended carbon nanotube. We find that the interplay between strong electron-phonon coupling and interdot tunneling can lead to a negative differential conductance at bias voltages exceeding the phonon frequency. Various transport properties are discussed, and we explain the physics of the occurrence of negative differential conductance in this system.

#### 2012

[19]
We investigate an ensemble of atoms which can be excited into a Rydberg state. Using a disordered quantum Ising model, we perform a numerical simulation of the experimental procedure and calculate the probability distribution function $P(M)$ to create a certain number of Rydberg atoms $M$, as well as their pair-correlation function. Using the latter, we identify the critical interaction strength above which the system undergoes a phase transition to a Rydberg crystal. We then show that this phase transition can be detected using $P(M)$ alone.
[18]
For many years, the Luttinger liquid theory has served as a useful paradigm for the description of one-dimensional (1D) quantum fluids in the limit of low energies. This theory is based on a linearization of the dispersion relation of the particles constituting the fluid. Recent progress in understanding 1D quantum fluids beyond the low-energy limit is reviewed, where the nonlinearity of the dispersion relation becomes essential. The novel methods which have been developed to tackle such systems combine phenomenology built on the ideas of the Fermi-edge singularity and the Fermi-liquid theory, perturbation theory in the interaction strength, and new ways of treating finite-size properties of integrable models. These methods can be applied to a wide variety of 1D fluids, from 1D spin liquids to electrons in quantum wires to cold atoms confined by 1D traps. Existing results for various dynamic correlation functions are reviewed, in particular, the dynamic structure factor and the spectral function. Moreover, it is shown how a dispersion nonlinearity leads to finite particle lifetimes and its impact on the transport properties of 1D systems at finite temperatures is discussed. The conventional Luttinger liquid theory is a special limit of the new theory, and the relation between the two is explained.
[17]
We evaluate the low-temperature conductance of a weakly interacting one-dimensional helical liquid without axial spin symmetry. The lack of that symmetry allows for inelastic backscattering of a single electron, accompanied by forward scattering of another. This joint effect of weak interactions and potential scattering off impurities results in a temperature-dependent deviation from the quantized conductance, $\delta G \propto T^4$. In addition, $\delta G$ is sensitive to the position of the Fermi level. We determine numerically the parameters entering our generic model for the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang Hamiltonian of a HgTe/CdTe quantum well in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling.

#### 2011

[16]
We analyze the nonequilibrium transport properties of a quantum dot with a harmonic degree of freedom (Holstein phonon) coupled to metallic leads, and derive its full counting statistics. By using the Lang-Firsov (polaron) transformation, we construct a diagrammatic scheme to calculate the cumulant generating function. The electron-phonon interaction is taken into account exactly, and the employed approximation represents a summation of a diagram subset with respect to the tunneling amplitude. By comparison to Monte Carlo data, the formalism is shown to capture the basic properties of the strong-coupling regime.
[15]
In this work we investigate the electronic surface properties of polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se$_2$ thin films by locally resolved scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS). From current imaging tunneling spectroscopy (CITS) maps of an area of we observe distinct granular inhomogeneities, where current-voltage ($I(U)$) spectra differ from grain to grain and vary between metallic and semiconducting characteristics. Due to the high density of defect states at the Cu(In,Ga)Se$_2$ surface, the metallic $I(U)$ characteristics is not surprising. In the case of the semiconducting $I(U)$ characteristics, we suggest a preferential oxidation of particular grains, which passivates defect levels at the surface. This is supported by the presence of gallium and indium oxides detected by global X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Furthermore, we recorded $I(U)$ spectra from different grains under supra band gap laser illumination, which always show semiconducting characteristics. This behavior can be explained by a saturated occupation of defect states by photoexcited charge carriers. By evaluating differential conductance $(dI/dU)$ spectra under illumination from various grains, we estimate the average surface band gap to and compare the valence band onset with results from macroscopic ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. The high lateral resolution of our CITS data allows also to study electronic properties at grain boundaries, which are discussed with regard to a recent STS study on a non-oxidized sample.
[14]
We consider a four-terminal setup of a two-dimensional topological insulator (quantum spin Hall insulator) with local tunneling between the upper and lower edges. The edge modes are modeled as helical Luttinger liquids and the electron-electron interactions are taken into account exactly. Using perturbation theory in the tunneling, we derive the cumulant generating function for the inter-edge current. We show that different possible transport channels give rise to different signatures in the current noise and current cross-correlations, which could be exploited in experiments to elucidate the interplay between electron-electron interactions and the helical nature of the edge states.
[13]
We propose a nanomechanical detection scheme for Majorana bound states, which have been predicted to exist at the edges of a one-dimensional topological superconductor, implemented, for instance, using a semiconducting wire placed on top of an s-wave superconductor. The detector makes use of an oscillating electrode, which can be realized using a doubly clamped metallic beam, tunnel coupled to one edge of the topological superconductor. We find that a measurement of the nonlinear differential conductance provides the necessary information to uniquely identify Majorana bound states.

[12]