Detection of non-Gaussian Fluctuations in a Quantum Point Contact

An experimental study of current fluctuations through a tunable transmission barrier, a quantum point contact, are reported. We measure the probability distribution function of transmitted charge with precision sufficient to extract the first three cumulants. To obtain the intrinsic quantities, corresponding to voltage-biased barrier, we employ a procedure that accounts for the response of the external circuit and the amplifier. The third cumulant, obtained with a high precision, is found to agree with the prediction for the statistics of transport in the non-Poissonian regime.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; published versio

Probing spin susceptibility of a correlated two-dimensional electron system by transport and magnetization measurements

We report temperature and density dependences of the spin susceptibility of strongly interacting electrons in Si inversion layers. We measured (i) the itinerant electron susceptibility $\chi^*$ from the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in crossed magnetic fields and (ii) thermodynamic susceptibility $\chi_{\rm T}$ sensitive to all the electrons in the layer. Both $\chi^*$ and $\chi_{\rm T}$ are strongly enhanced with lowering the electron density in the metallic phase. However, there is no sign of divergency of either quantity at the density of the metal-insulator transition $n_c$. Moreover, the value of $\chi_{\rm T}$, which can be measured across the transition down to very low densities deep in the insulating phase, increases with density at $n<n_c$, as expected. In the absence of magnetic field, we found the temperature dependence of $\chi^*$ to be consistent with Fermi-liquid-based predictions, and to be much weaker than the power-law, predicted by non-Fermi-liquid models. We attribute a much stronger temperature dependence of $\chi_{\rm T}$ to localized spin droplets. In strong enough in-plane magnetic field, we found the temperature dependence of $\chi^*$ to be stronger than that expected for the Fermi liquid interaction corrections.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure

Measurement of Counting Statistics of Electron Transport in a Tunnel Junction

We present measurements of the time-dependent fluctuations in electrical current in a voltage-biased tunnel junction. We were able to simultaneously extract the first three moments of the tunnel current counting statistics. Detailed comparison of the second and the third moment reveals that counting statistics is accurately described by the Poissonian distribution expected for spontaneous current fluctuations due to electron charge discreteness, realized in tunneling transport at negligible coupling to environment.Comment: bibliography expande

Ring diagrams and electroweak phase transition in a magnetic field

Electroweak phase transition in a magnetic field is investigated within the one-loop and ring diagram contributions to the effective potential in the minimal Standard Model. All fundamental fermions and bosons are included with their actual values of masses and the Higgs boson mass is considered in the range $75 GeV \leq m_H \leq 115 GeV$. The effective potential is real at sufficiently high temperature. The important role of fermions and $W$-bosons in symmetry behaviour is observed. It is found that the phase transition for the field strengths $10^{23} - 10^{24}$G is of first order but the baryogenesis condition is not satisfied. The comparison with the hypermagnetic field case is done.Comment: 16 pages, Latex, changed for a mistake in the numerical par

Full counting statistics of a chaotic cavity with asymmetric leads

We study the statistics of charge transport in a chaotic cavity attached to external reservoirs by two openings of different size which transmit non-equal number of quantum channels. An exact formula for the cumulant generating function has been derived by means of the Keldysh-Green function technique within the circuit theory of mesoscopic transport. The derived formula determines the full counting statistics of charge transport, i.e., the probability distribution and all-order cumulants of current noise. It is found that, for asymmetric cavities, in contrast to other mesoscopic systems, the third-order cumulant changes the sign at high biases. This effect is attributed to the skewness of the distribution of transmission eigenvalues with respect to forward/backward scattering. For a symmetric cavity we find that the third cumulant approaches a voltage-independent constant proportional to the temperature and the number of quantum channels in the leads.Comment: new section on probability distribution and new references adde

Effect of screening on shot noise in diffusive mesoscopic conductors

Shot noise in diffusive mesoscopic conductors, at finite observation frequencies $\omega$ (comparable to the reciprocal Thouless time $\tau_T^{-1}$), is analyzed with an account of screening. At low frequencies, the well-known result $S_I(\omega)=2eI/3$ is recovered. This result is valid at arbitrary $\omega \tau_T$ for wide conductors longer than the screening length. However, at least for two very different systems, namely, wide and short conductors, and thin conductors over a close ground plane, noise approaches a different fundamental level, $S_I(\omega) = eI$, at $\omega \tau _T\gg 1$.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Published version. Also available in the journal's format at http://hana.physics.sunysb.edu/~yehuda/cv/papers/shotnoise.pd

Tensor analyzing power Ayy in deuteron inclusive breakup at large Pt and spin structure of deuteron at short internucleonic distances

The Ayy data for deuteron inclusive breakup off hydrogen and carbon at a deuteron momentum of 9.0 GeV/c and large Pt of emitted protons are presented. The large values of Ayy independent of the target mass reflect the sensitivity of the data to the deuteron spin structure. The data obtained at fixed $x$ and plotted versus Pt clearly demonstrate the dependence of the deuteron spin structure at short internucleonic distances on two variables. The data are compared with the calculations using Paris, CD-Bonn and Karmanov's deuteron wave functions.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, talk given at the SPIN2004 Conf., 10-16 Oct. 2004, Triest, Ital

Electron shot noise beyond the second moment

The form of electron counting statistics of the tunneling current noise in a generic many-body interacting electron system is obtained. The third correlator of current fluctuations (the skewness of the charge counting distribution) has a universal relation with the current I and the quasiparticle charge q. This relation C_3 = q^2 I holds in a wide bias voltage range, both at large and small eV/kT, thereby representing an advantage compared to the Schottky formula. We consider the possibility of using the counting statistics for detecting quasiparticle charge at high temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure