Resonant fractional conductance through a 1D Wigner chain

TL;DR

This paper explores how strong electron interactions in a clean 1D system lead to fractional conductance plateaus, especially in spinful cases, aligning with recent experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a discrete model showing fractional conductance in a 1D Wigner chain, highlighting the role of spin and filling factors in conductance quantization.

Findings

Fractional conductance peaks depend on the filling factor in spinful systems.

Spinless systems show conductance unaffected by interactions.

Model explains experimental fractional conductance plateaus.

Abstract

In recent experiments on conductance of one-dimensional (1D) channels in ultra-clean samples, a diverse set of plateaus were found at fractions of the quantum of conductance in zero magnetic field. We consider a discrete model of strongly interacting electrons in a clean 1D system where the current between weak tunneling contacts is carried by fractionally charged solutions. While in the spinless case conductance remains unaffected by the interaction, as is typical for the strongly interacting clean 1D systems, we demonstrate that in the spinful case the peak conductance takes fractional values that depend on the filling factor of the 1D channel.