Atom capture by nanotube and scaling anomaly

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the theoretical possibility of bound states of neutral atoms near charged nanotubes due to a scaling anomaly, potentially affecting quantum conductance steps.

Contribution

It introduces a novel bound state solution caused by self-adjoint boundary conditions and scaling anomaly in atom-nanotube interactions.

Findings

Bound states exist for polarizable atoms near charged nanotubes.

Scaling anomaly explains the bound state formation.

Potential impact on quantized conductance steps.

Abstract

The existence of bound state of the polarizable neutral atom in the inverse square potential created by the electric field of single walled charged carbon nanotube (SWNT) is shown to be theoretically possible. The consideration of inequivalent boundary conditions due to self-adjoint extensions lead to this nontrivial bound state solution. It is also shown that the scaling anomaly is responsible for the existence of bound state. Binding of the polarizable atoms in the coupling constant interval \eta^2\in[0,1) may be responsible for the smearing of the edge of steps in quantized conductance, which has not been considered so far in literature.