Magnetic field symmetries of nonlinear transport with elastic and inelastic scattering

TL;DR

This paper investigates how nonlinear electronic transport symmetries in Aharonov-Bohm interferometers are affected by elastic and inelastic scattering, revealing conditions under which magnetic field symmetries are preserved or broken.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of magnetic field symmetry breaking in nonlinear transport due to inelastic and elastic scattering, including numerical demonstrations.

Findings

Odd conductance terms are even in magnetic field for symmetric junctions.

Asymmetry weakly breaks magnetic field symmetry of conductance.

Onsager-Casimir symmetry persists beyond linear response under elastic dephasing.

Abstract

We study nonlinear electronic transport symmetries in Aharonov-Bohm interferometers subjected to inelastic scattering effects and show that odd (even) conductance terms are even (odd) in the magnetic field when the junction is (left-right) spatially symmetric. This observation does not hold when an asymmetry is introduced, as we show numerically, but odd conductance terms only manifest a weak breakdown of the magnetic field symmetry. Under elastic dephasing effects, the Onsager-Casimir symmetry is maintained beyond linear response and under spatial asymmetries.