Tunneling exponents sensitive to impurity scattering in quantum wires

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that impurity scattering influences the tunneling exponent in quantum wires, linking it to conductance and revealing a many-body resonance akin to the Kondo effect, with implications for quantum critical behavior.

Contribution

It uncovers how impurity scattering alters tunneling exponents in the Coulomb Tonks gas regime, a novel insight into quantum wire transport properties.

Findings

Tunneling exponent depends on wire conductance.

Impurity scattering induces a many-body resonance similar to Kondo effect.

Anomalous scaling remains stable at high energies.

Abstract

We show that the scaling exponent for tunneling into a quantum wire in the "Coulomb Tonks gas" regime of impenetrable, but otherwise free, electrons is affected by impurity scattering in the wire. The exponent for tunneling into such a wire thus depends on the conductance through the wire. This striking effect originates from a many-body scattering resonance reminiscent of the Kondo effect. The predicted anomalous scaling is stable against weak perturbations of the ideal Tonks gas limit at sufficiently high energies, similar to the phenomenology of a quantum critical point.