Landauer transport as a quasisteady state on finite chains under unitary quantum dynamics

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2020

Authors

Santos Pires, JPS (Author) FCUP; Amorim, B (Author) Other; Viana Parente Lopes, JMVP (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Physical Review B

Vol. 101

ISSN: 2469-9950

Publisher: American Physical Society

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 4 Citations

Scopus - 4 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00R-YZF

DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.101.104203

Abstract (EN): In this paper, we study the emergence of a Landauer transport regime from the quantum-mechanical dynamics of free electrons in a disordered tight-binding chain, which is coupled to finite leads with open boundaries. Both partitioned and partition free initial conditions are analyzed and seen to give rise, for large enough leads, to the same spatially uniform quasi-steady-state current, which agrees with the Landauer value. The quasi-steady-state regime is preceded by a transient regime, which lasts for a time proportional to the length of the disordered sample, and followed by recursions, after a time that is proportional to the lead size. These theoretical predictions may be of interest to future experiments on transport of fermionic ultracold atoms across optical lattices. We also observe finite-size current oscillations, superimposed on the quasisteady state, whose behavior depends crucially on the conditions initially imposed on the system. Finally, we show how a time-resolved Kubo formula is able to reproduce this Landauer transport regime, as the leads grow bigger.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 18