Which Kubo formula gives the exact conductance of a mesoscopic disordered system?

Abstract

In both research and textbook literature one often finds two ``different'' Kubo formulas for the zero-temperature conductance of a non-interacting Fermi system. They contain a trace of the product of velocity operators and single-particle (retarded and advanced) Green operators: $\text{Tr}({\hat{v}}_x{\hat{G}}^r{\hat{v}}_x{\hat{G}}^a)$ or $\text{Tr}({\hat{v}}_x\text{Im}\hat{G}{\hat{v}}_x\text{Im}\hat{G})$. The study investigates the relationship between these expressions, as well as the requirements of current conservation, through exact evaluation of such quantum-mechanical traces for a nanoscale (containing 1000 atoms) mesoscopic disordered conductor. The traces are computed in the semiclassical regime (where disorder is weak) and, more importantly, in the nonperturbative transport regime (including the region around localization-delocalization transition) where concept of mean free path ceases to exist. Since quantum interference effects for such strong disorder are not amenable to diagrammatic or nonlinear $\sigma$-model techniques, the evolution of different Green function terms with disorder strength provides novel insight into the development of an Anderson localized phase.

7 pages, 5 embedded EPS figures, final published version (note: PRB article has different title due to editorial censorship)

References in corpus (1)

• Limits of the dynamical approach to non-linear response of mesoscopic systems

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