Bosonization out of equilibrium

TL;DR

This paper introduces a bosonization method for non-equilibrium one-dimensional fermions, linking dephasing and energy redistribution to fractionalization phenomena in Luttinger liquids.

Contribution

It develops a novel bosonization technique applicable to out-of-equilibrium systems with arbitrary energy distributions in quantum wires.

Findings

Expresses non-equilibrium Green functions via functional determinants.

Reveals the relation between dephasing, energy redistribution, and fractionalization.

Provides a framework for analyzing quantum transport in non-equilibrium Luttinger liquids.

Abstract

We develop a bosonization technique for one-dimensional fermions out of equilibrium. The approach is used to study a quantum wire attached to two electrodes with arbitrary energy distributions. The non-equilibrium electron Green function is expressed in terms of functional determinants of a single-particle``counting'' operator with a time-dependent scattering phase. The result reveals an intrinsic relation of dephasing and energy redistribution in Luttinger-liquids to ``fractionalization'' of electron-hole excitations in the tunneling process and at boundaries with leads.