Ballistic transport is dissipative: the why and how

TL;DR

This paper explains how ballistic quantum wires, despite being dissipationless in transmission, still dissipate energy through many-body quantum kinetics, resolving longstanding questions about conductance and noise.

Contribution

It introduces a many-body quantum kinetic framework that explains dissipation and conductance quantization in ballistic quantum wires, addressing unresolved experimental phenomena.

Findings

Universal quantization of conductance despite dissipation

Dissipation occurs via many-body quantum kinetics

Resolution of quantum-point-contact noise puzzle

Abstract

In the ballistic limit, the Landauer conductance steps of a mesoscopic quantum wire have been explained by coherent and dissipationless transmission of individual electrons across a one-dimensional barrier. This leaves untouched the central issue of conduction: a quantum wire, albeit ballistic, has finite resistance and so must dissipate energy. Exactly HOW does the quantum wire shed its excess electrical energy? We show that the answer is provided, uniquely, by many-body quantum kinetics. Not only does this inevitably lead to universal quantization of the conductance, in spite of dissipation; it fully resolves a baffling experimental result in quantum-point-contact noise. The underlying physics rests crucially upon the action of the conservation laws in these open metallic systems.