Persistent Currents in 1D Disordered Rings of Interacting Electrons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how disorder and interactions affect persistent currents in one-dimensional rings of spinless fermions, showing both factors reduce current and that interactions have a stronger impact with disorder away from half-filling.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis of persistent currents in disordered 1D fermion rings, highlighting the combined effects of disorder and interactions.

Findings

Disorder and interactions decrease persistent currents.

Interactions have a stronger effect in disordered systems away from half-filling.

Persistent currents are suppressed by localization effects.

Abstract

We calculate the persistent current of 1D rings of spinless fermions with short-range interactions on a lattice with up to 20 sites, and in the presence of disorder, for various band fillings. We find that {\it both} disorder and interactions always decrease the persistent current by localizing the electrons. Away from half-filling, the interaction has a much stronger influence in the presence of disorder than in the pure case.