1998/04/30 by D. S. Golubev, D.S. Golubev, A. D. Zaikin +1 · 4 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Physical and Chemical Molecular Interactions #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices #cond-mat
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0921-4526(98)00464-5
The file is prepared for the Proceedings of the Symposium on Quantum Phenomena at Low Temperatures, Lammi (Finland), 7-11 January 1998. 18 pages, 3 postscript figures. Discussion of the scattering problem and perturbation theory is added
arxiv created 1998/06/09 · openalex publication_date 1998/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We discuss a fundamental effect of the interaction-induced decoherence of the electron wave function in disordered metals. In the first part of the paper we consider a simple model of a quantum particle interacting with a bath of harmonic oscillators and analyze the physical origin of the effect. This exactly solvable model also allows to understand why the arguments against the existence of the effect at low temperatures fail. The second part of the paper is devoted to a rigorous analysis of quantum decoherence in disordered metals. We also discuss the relation of our results to the recent experiments on GaAs structures. The existence of a finite quantum decoherence rate at low T implies that low dimensional disordered metals with generic parameters do not become insulators even at T=0.