Persistent currents in a Moebius ladder: A test of interchain coherence of interacting electrons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electron interactions affect persistent currents in a Moebius ladder, revealing a doubled flux periodicity under strong repulsive interactions due to inhibited interchain hopping.

Contribution

It demonstrates that strong intrachain interactions cause a doubling of the flux periodicity in persistent currents, highlighting the role of electron coherence in Moebius geometries.

Findings

Periodic current flux dependence doubles with strong repulsive interactions.

Interchain electron hopping is suppressed by interactions, altering current behavior.

Proposes mesoscopic devices to observe these interaction effects.

Abstract

Persistent currents in a Moebius ladder are shown to be very sensitive to the effects of intrachain interactions on the hopping of electrons between chains. Their periodicity as a function of flux is doubled for strong enough repulsive interactions because electrons cannot hop coherently between the chains and have to travel along the full edge of the Moebius ladder, thus encircling the flux twice. Mesoscopic devices that should enable one to observe these effects are proposed.