Scattering theory approach to bosonization of non-equilibrium mesoscopic systems

TL;DR

This paper extends the scattering theory approach to bosonization, enabling the analysis of strongly interacting, non-equilibrium, quasi-one-dimensional electron systems like Luttinger liquids.

Contribution

It develops a novel scattering theory framework for bosonization applicable to non-equilibrium, strongly interacting mesoscopic systems such as Luttinger liquids.

Findings

Provides a scattering theory approach to bosonization for non-equilibrium systems

Enables analysis of strongly interacting one-dimensional electron systems

Bridges scattering theory with bosonization techniques

Abstract

Between many prominent contributions of Markus Buttiker to mesoscopic physics, the scattering theory approach to the electron transport and noise stands out for its elegance, simplicity, universality, and popularity between theorists working in this field. It offers an efficient way to theoretically investigate open electron systems far from equilibrium. However, this method is limited to situations where interactions between electrons can be ignored, or considered perturbatively. Fortunately, this is the case in a broad class of metallic systems, which are commonly described by the Fermi liquid theory. Yet, there exist another broad class of electron systems of reduced dimensionality, the so-called Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids, where interactions are effectively strong and cannot be neglected even at low energies. Nevertheless, strong interactions can be accounted exactly using the bosonization technique, which utilizes the free-bosonic character of collective excitations in these systems. In the present work, we use this fact in order to develop the scattering theory approach to the bosonization of open quasi-one dimensional electron systems far from equilibrium.