Condensed Matter Seminar

I will discuss the resistance of a long non-uniform quantum wire, in which the strength of the electron-electron interactions varies smoothly at large length scales. Contrary to the expectations based on the Luttinger-liquid description of the interacting electron systems, I will show that these inhomogeneities lead to a finite resistivity of the wire. This effect is a consequence of the lack of momentum conservation in an inhomogeneous wire as well as of the non-trivial processes of electron equilibration in one dimension. Estimating the rate of change of momentum associated with non-momentum-conserving scattering processes, I will derive the expression for the resistivity of the wire in the regime of weakly interacting electrons and find a contribution linear in temperature for a broad range of temperatures below the Fermi energy.