Low-dimensional systems in condensed matter physics exhibit a rich array of correlated electronic phases. One-dimensional systems stand out in this regard. Electrons cannot avoid each other in 1D, enhancing the effects of interactions. The resulting correlations leave distinct spatial imprints on the electronic density that can be imaged with scanning probes. Disorder, however, can destroy these delicate interacting states by breaking up the electron liquid into localized pieces. Thus, to generate fragile interacting quantum states, one requires an extremely clean system in which disorder does not overcome interactions, as well as a high degree of tunability to design potential landscapes. Furthermore, to directly measure the resulting spatial correlations, one requires an exceptionally sensitive scanning probe, but the most sensitive probes presently available are also invasive, perturbing the system and screening electron-electron interactions.; Engineering and Applied Sciences

In this review we consider those processes in condensed matter that involve the irreversible flow of energy between electrons and nuclei that follows from a system being taken out of equilibrium. We survey some of the more important experimental phenomena associated with these processes, followed by a number of theoretical techniques for studying them. The techniques considered are those that can be applied to systems containing many non-equivalent atoms. They include both perturbative approaches (Fermi's Golden Rule, and non-equilibrium Green's functions) and molecular dynamics based (the Ehrenfest approximation, surface hopping, semi-classical gaussian wavefunction methods and correlated electron-ion dynamics). These methods are described and characterised, with indications of their relative merits.; Comment: LaTeX with IoP style files, 43 pages, 3 figures

A new lattice model is presented for correlated electrons on the unrestricted $4^L$-dimensional electronic Hilbert space $\otimes_{n=1}^L{\bf C}^4$ (where $L$ is the lattice length). It is a supersymmetric generalization of the Hubbard model, but differs from the extended Hubbard model proposed by Essler, Korepin and Schoutens. The supersymmetry algebra of the new model is superalgebra $gl(2|1)$. The model contains one symmetry-preserving free real parameter which is the Hubbard interaction parameter $U$, and has its origin here in the one-parameter family of inequivalent typical 4-dimensional irreps of $gl(2|1)$. On a one-dimensional lattice, the model is exactly solvable by the Bethe ansatz.; Comment: 10 pages, LaTex. (final version to appear in Phys.Rev.Lett.)

A model for correlated electrons in a lattice with local additional spin--1 degrees of freedom inducing constrained hopping, is studied both in the low density limit and at quarter filling. We show that in both 1D and 2D two particles form a bound state even in presence of a repulsive U

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Modern density functional theory (DFT) calculations employ the Kohn-Sham (KS) system of non-interacting electrons as a reference, with all complications buried in the exchange-correlation energy (Exc). The adiabatic connection formula gives an exact expression for Exc. We consider DFT calculations that instead employ a reference of strictly-correlated electrons. We define a "decorrelation energy" that relates this reference to the real system, and derive the corresponding adiabatic connection formula. We illustrate this theory in three situations, namely the uniform electron gas, Hooke's atom, and the stretched hydrogen molecule. The adiabatic connection for strictly-correlated electrons provides an alternative perspective for understanding density functional theory and constructing approximate functionals.; Comment: 4 figures, has been published in J. Chem. Phys

We present numerical evidence that the hopping of electrons between chains described by the $t-J$ model is coherent in the integrable cases ($J=0$ and $J=2$) and essentially incoherent otherwise. This effect is {\it not} related to the value of the exponent $\alpha$, (which is restricted to the interval [0,1/8] when $0\le J\le 2$), and we propose that enhanced coherence is characteristic of integrable systems.; Comment: 9 pages, LateX, 4 figures in uuencoded format, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

We propose and analyze a spin-entangler for electrons based on an s-wave superconductor coupled to two quantum dots each of which is tunnel-coupled to normal Fermi leads. We show that in the presence of a voltage bias and in the Coulomb blockade regime two correlated electrons provided by the Andreev process can coherently tunnel from the superconductor via different dots into different leads. The spin-singlet coming from the Cooper pair remains preserved in this process, and the setup provides a source of mobile and nonlocal spin-entangled electrons. The transport current is calculated and shown to be dominated by a two-particle Breit-Wigner resonance which allows the injection of two spin-entangled electrons into different leads at exactly the same orbital energy, which is a crucial requirement for the detection of spin entanglement via noise measurements. The coherent tunneling of both electrons into the same lead is suppressed by the on-site Coulomb repulsion and/or the superconducting gap, while the tunneling into different leads is suppressed through the initial separation of the tunneling electrons. In the regime of interest the particle-hole excitations of the leads are shown to be negligible. The Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the current are shown to contain single- and two-electron periods with amplitudes that both vanish with increasing Coulomb repulsion albeit differently fast.; Comment: 11 double-column pages...

We study the applicability of composite fermion theory to electrons in two-dimensional parabolically-confined quantum dots in a strong perpendicular magnetic field in the limit of low Zeeman energy. The non-interacting composite fermion spectrum correctly specifies the primary features of this system. Additional features are relatively small, indicating that the residual interaction between the composite fermions is weak. \footnote{Published in Phys. Rev. B {\bf 52}, 2798 (1995).}; Comment: 15 pages, 7 postscript figures

We consider a magnetic impurity which interacts by hybridization with a system of weakly correlated electrons and determine the energy of the ground state by means of an 1/N_f expansion. The correlations among the conduction electrons are described by a Hubbard Hamiltonian and are treated to lowest order in the interaction strength. We find that their effect on the Kondo temperature, T_K, in the Kondo limit is twofold: First, the position of the impurity level is shifted due to the reduction of charge fluctuations, which reduces T_K. Secondly, the bare Kondo exchange coupling is enhanced as spin fluctuations are enlarged. In total, T_K increases. Both corrections require intermediate states beyond the standard Varma-Yafet ansatz. This shows that the Hubbard interaction does not just provide quasiparticles, which hybridize with the impurity, but also renormalizes the Kondo coupling.; Comment: ReVTeX 19 pages, 3 uuenconded postscript figures

Numerical and analytical studies of several models of correlated electrons are discussed. Based on exact diagonalization and variational Monte Carlo techniques, we have found strong indications that the two dimensional t-J model superconducts near phase separation in the regime of quarter-filling density, in agreement with previous results reported by Dagotto and Riera (Phys. Rev. Letters 70, 682 (1993)). At this density the dominant channel is d_{x^2-y^2}, but a novel transition to s-wave superconductivity is observed decreasing the electronic density. In addition, the one band t-U-V model has also been studied using the mean-field approximation that accurately described the spin density wave phase of the repulsive Hubbard model at half-filling. Finally, the two band Hubbard model on a chain is also analyzed. Superconducting correlations near phase separation exist in this model, as it occurs in the t-J model. Based on these nontrivial examples it is $conjectured$ that electronic models tend to have superconducting phases in the vicinity of phase separation.Reciprocally, if it is established that a model that does not phase separate, then its chances of presenting a superconducting phase are considerably reduced.; Comment: 29 pages...

The changes of the spin depolarization length in zinc-blende semiconductors when an external component of correlated noise is added to a static driving electric field are analyzed for different values of field strength, noise amplitude and correlation time. Electron dynamics is simulated by a Monte Carlo procedure which keeps into account all the possible scattering phenomena of the hot electrons in the medium and includes the evolution of spin polarization. Spin depolarization is studied by examinating the decay of the initial spin polarization of the conduction electrons through the D'yakonov-Perel process, the only relevant relaxation mechanism in III-V crystals. Our results show that, for electric field amplitude lower than the Gunn field, the dephasing length shortens with the increasing of the noise intensity. Moreover, a nonmonotonic behavior of spin depolarization length with the noise correlation time is found, characterized by a maximum variation for values of noise correlation time comparable with the dephasing time. Instead, in high field conditions, we find that, critically depending on the noise correlation time, external fluctuations can positively affect the relaxation length. The influence of the inclusion of the electron-electron scattering mechanism is also shown and discussed.; Comment: Published on "Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter" as "Fast Track Communications"...

The RKKY law and the Kondo screening cloud around a magnetic impurity are investigated for correlated electrons in 1D (Luttinger liquid). We find slow algebraic distance dependences, with a crossover between both types of behavior. Monte Carlo simulations have been developed to study this crossover. In the strong coupling regime, the Knight shift is shown to increase with distance due to correlations.; Comment: 5 pages REVTeX, incl two figures, to appear in Phys.Rev.B

A recently published correlated electron pseudopotentials (CEPPs) method has been adapted for application to the 3d-transition metals, and to include relativistic effects. New CEPPs are reported for the atoms Sc$-$Fe, constructed from atomic quantum chemical calculations that include an accurate description of correlated electrons. Dissociation energies, molecular geometries, and zero-point vibrational energies of small molecules are compared with all electron results, with all quantities evaluated using coupled cluster singles doubles and triples (CCSD(T)) calculations. The CEPPs give better results in the correlated-electron calculations than Hartree-Fock-based pseudopotentials available in the literature.; Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

We present a new integrable model for correlated electrons which is based on a $so(5)$ symmetry. By using an $\eta$-pairing realization we construct eigenstates of the Hamiltonian with off-diagonal long-range order. It is also shown that these states lie in the ground state sector. We exactly solve the model on a one-dimensional lattice by the Bethe ansatz.; Comment: RevTex, 4 pages

The Hartree-Fock based diagonalization is a computational method for the investigation of the low-energy properties of correlated electrons in disordered solids. The method is related to the quantum-chemical configuration interaction approach. It consists in diagonalizing the Hamiltonian in a reduced Hilbert space built of the low-energy states of the corresponding disordered Hartree-Fock Hamiltonian. The properties of the method are discussed for the example of the quantum Coulomb glass, a lattice model of electrons in a random potential interacting via long-range Coulomb interaction. Particular attention is paid to the accuracy of the results as a function of the dimension of the reduced Hilbert space. It is argued that disorder actually helps the approximation.; Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, plenary talk given by M. Schreiber at the 3rd IMACS Seminar on Monte Carlo methods, Salzburg (September 10-14, 2001)

Single-wall carbon nanotubes are almost ideal systems for the investigation of exotic many-body effects due to non-Fermi liquid behavior of interacting electrons in one dimension. Recent theoretical and experimental results are reviewed with a focus on electron correlations. Starting from a microscopic lattice model we derive an effective phase Hamiltonian for conducting single-wall nanotubes with arbitrary chirality. The parameters of the Hamiltonian show very weak dependence on the chiral angle, which makes the low-energy physics of conducting nanotubes universal. The temperature-dependent resistivity and frequency-dependent optical conductivity of nanotubes with impurities are evaluated within the Luttinger-like model. Localization effects are studied. In particular, we found that intra-valley and inter-valley electron scattering can not coexist at low energies. Low-energy properties of clean nanotubes are studied beyond the Luttinger liquid approximation. The strongest Mott-like electron instability occurs at half filling. In the Mott insulating phase electrons at different atomic sublattices form characteristic bound states. The energy gaps of $0.01-0.1$ eV occur in all modes of elementary excitations. We finally discuss observability of the Mott insulating phase in transport experiments. The accent is made on the charge transfer from external electrodes which results in a deviation of the electron density from half-filling.; Comment: 16 pages...

The persistent current of correlated electrons in a continuous one-dimensional ring with a single scatterer is calculated by solving the many-body Schrodinger equation for several tens of electrons interacting via the electron-electron (e-e) interaction of finite range. The problem is solved by the configuration-interaction (CI) and diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) methods. The CI and DMC results are in good agreement. In both cases, the persistent current $I$ as a function of the ring length $L$ exhibits the asymptotic dependence $I \propto L^{-1-\alpha}$ typical of the Luttinger liquid, where the power $\alpha$ depends only on the e-e interaction. The numerical values of $\alpha$ agree with the known formula of the renormalisation-group theory.; Comment: Conference proceedings. Accepted for publication in Physica E

These lecture notes discuss two effects which contribute to the reduction of the interference fringe contrast in matter interferometers. The first effect is the shot noise arising from a finite number of atoms used in experiments. Focusing on a single shot measurement we provide explicit calculations of the full distribution functions of the fringe contrast for the interference of either the coherent or the number states of atoms. Another mechanism of the suppression of the amplitude of interference fringes discussed in these lecture notes is the quantum and thermal fluctuations of the order parameter in low dimensional condensates. We summarize recent theoretical and experimental studies demonstrating that suppression of the interference fringe contrast and its shot to shot variations can be used to study correlation functions within individual condensates. We also discuss full distribution functions of the fringe amplitudes for one and two dimensional condensates and review their connection to high order correlation functions. We point out intriguing mathematical connections between the distribution functions of interference fringe amplitudes and several other problems in field theory, systems of correlated electrons, and statistical physics.; Comment: 47 pages...

Starting with an accurate pseudopotential description of the single-particle states, and following by configuration-interaction treatment of correlated electrons in vertically coupled, self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dot-molecules, we show how simpler, popularly-practiced approximations, depict the basic physical characteristics including the singlet-triplet splitting, degree of entanglement (DOE) and correlation. The mean-field-like single-configuration approaches such as Hartree-Fock and local spin density, lacking correlation, incorrectly identify the ground state symmetry and give inaccurate values for the singlet-triplet splitting and the DOE. The Hubbard model gives qualitatively correct results for the ground state symmetry and singlet-triplet splitting, but produces significant errors in the DOE because it ignores the fact that the strain is asymmetric even if the dots within a molecule are identical. Finally, the Heisenberg model gives qualitatively correct ground state symmetry and singlet-triplet splitting only for rather large inter-dot separations, but it greatly overestimates the DOE as a consequence of ignoring the electron double occupancy effect.; Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. B

Interacting electrons in a semiconductor quantum dot at strong magnetic fields exhibit a rich set of states, including correlated quantum fluids and crystallites of various symmetries. We develop in this paper a perturbative scheme based on the correlated basis functions of the composite-fermion theory, that allows a systematic improvement of the wave functions and the energies for low-lying eigenstates. For a test of the method, we study systems for which exact results are known, and find that practically exact answers are obtained for the ground state wave function, ground state energy, excitation gap, and the pair correlation function. We show how the perturbative scheme helps resolve the subtle physics of competing orders in certain anomalous cases.; Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables