Alexander Altland

NONSTANDARD SYMMETRY CLASSES IN MESOSCOPIC NORMAL-SUPERCONDUCTING HYBRID STRUCTURES

Normal-conducting mesoscopic systems in contact with a superconductor are classified by the symmetry operations of time reversal and rotation of the electron’s spin. Four symmetry classes are identified, which correspond to Cartan’s symmetric spaces of type C, CI, D, and DIII. A detailed study is made of the systems where the phase shift due to Andreev reflection averages to zero along a typical semiclassical single-electron trajectory. Such systems are particularly interesting because they do not have a genuine excitation gap but support quasiparticle states close to the chemical potential. Disorder or dynamically generated chaos mixes the states and produces forms of universal level statistics different from Wigner-Dyson. For two of the four universality classes, the n-level correlation functions are calculated by the mapping on a free one-dimensional Fermi gas with a boundary. The remaining two classes are related to the Laguerre orthogonal and symplectic random-matrix ensembles. For a quantum dot with a normal-metal‐superconducting geometry, the weaklocalization correction to the conductance is calculated as a function of sticking probability and two perturbations breaking time-reversal symmetry and spin-rotation invariance. The universal conductance fluctuations are computed from a maximum-entropy S-matrix ensemble. They are larger by a factor of 2 than what is naively expected from the analogy with normal-conducting systems. This enhancement is explained by the doubling of the number of slow modes: owing to the coupling of particles and holes by the proximity to the superconductor, every cooperon and diffusion mode in the advanced-retarded channel entails a corresponding mode in the advanced-advanced ~or retarded-retarded! channel. @S0163-1829~97!04001-0#

Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model as Liouville quantum mechanics

Abstract We show that the proper inclusion of soft reparameterization modes in the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model of N randomly interacting Majorana fermions reduces its long-time behavior to that of Liouville quantum mechanics. As a result, all zero temperature correlation functions decay with the universal exponent ∝ τ − 3 / 2 for times larger than the inverse single particle level spacing τ ≫ N ln ⁡ N . In the particular case of the single particle Green function this behavior is manifestation of the zero-bias anomaly, or scaling in energy as ϵ 1 / 2 . We also present exact diagonalization study supporting our conclusions.

Periodic-orbit theory of level correlations.

We present a semiclassical explanation of the so-called Bohigas-Giannoni-Schmit conjecture which asserts universality of spectral fluctuations in chaotic dynamics. We work with a generating function whose semiclassical limit is determined by quadruplets of sets of periodic orbits. The asymptotic expansions of both the nonoscillatory and the oscillatory part of the universal spectral correlator are obtained. Borel summation of the series reproduces the exact correlator of random-matrix theory.

Random matrix theory of a chaotic Andreev quantum dot.

A new universality class distinct from the standard Wigner-Dyson class is identified. This class is realized by putting a metallic quantum dot in contact with a superconductor, while applying a magnetic field so as to make the pairing field effectively vanish on average. A random-matrix description of the spectral and transport properties of such a quantum dot is proposed. The weak-localization correction to the tunnel conductance is nonzero and results from the depletion of the density of states due to the coupling with the superconductor. Semiclassically, the depletion is caused by a singular mode of phase-coherent long-range propagation of particles and holes. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

Periodic-Orbit Theory of Universality in Quantum Chaos

We argue semiclassically, on the basis of Gutzwillers periodic-orbit theory, that full classical chaos is paralleled by quantum energy spectra with universal spectral statistics, in agreement with random-matrix theory. For dynamics from all three Wigner-Dyson symmetry classes, we calculate the small-time spectral form factor K(tau) as power series in the time tau. Each term tau(n) of that series is provided by specific families of pairs of periodic orbits. The contributing pairs are classified in terms of close self-encounters in phase space. The frequency of occurrence of self-encounters is calculated by invoking ergodicity. Combinatorial rules for building pairs involve nontrivial properties of permutations. We show our series to be equivalent to perturbative implementations of the nonlinear sigma models for the Wigner-Dyson ensembles of random matrices and for disordered systems; our families of orbit pairs have a one-to-one relationship with Feynman diagrams known from the sigma model.

Periodic-orbit theory of universal level correlations in quantum chaos

Using Gutzwillers semiclassical periodic-orbit theory, we demonstrate universal behavior of the two-point correlator of the density of levels for quantum systems whose classical limit is fully chaotic. We go beyond previous work in establishing the full correlator such that its Fourier transform, the spectral form factor, is determined for all times, below and above the Heisenberg time. We cover dynamics with and without time-reversal invariance (from the orthogonal and unitary symmetry classes). A key step in our reasoning is to sum the periodic-orbit expansion in terms of a matrix integral, like the one known from the sigma model of random matrix theory.

Power-law out of time order correlation functions in the SYK model

We evaluate the finite temperature partition sum and correlation functions of the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev (SYK) model. Starting from a recently proposed mapping of the SYK model onto Liouville quantum mechanics, we obtain our results by exact integration over conformal Goldstone modes reparameterizing physical time. Perhaps, the least expected result of our analysis is that at time scales proportional to the number of particles the out of time order correlation function crosses over from a regime of exponential decay to a universal t−6 power-law behavior.

Theories of low-energy quasi-particle states in disordered d-wave superconductors

Abstract The physics of low-energy quasi-particle excitations in disordered d -wave superconductors is a subject of ongoing intensive research. Over the last decade, a variety of conceptually and methodologically different approaches to the problem have been developed. Unfortunately, many of these theories contradict each other, and the current literature displays a lack of consensus on even the most basic physical observables. Adopting a symmetry-oriented approach, the present paper attempts to identify the origin of the disagreement between various previous approaches, and to develop a coherent theoretical description of the different low-energy regimes realized in weakly disordered d -wave superconductors. We show that, depending on the presence or absence of time-reversal invariance and the microscopic nature of the impurities, the system falls into one of four different symmetry classes. By employing a field-theoretical formalism, we derive effective descriptions of these universal regimes as descendants of a common parent field theory of Wess–Zumino–Novikov–Witten type. As well as describing the properties of each universal regime, we analyse a number of physically relevant crossover scenarios, and discuss reasons for the disagreement between previous results. We also touch upon other aspects of the phenomenology of the d -wave superconductor such as quasi-particle localization properties, the spin quantum Hall effect, and the quasi-particle physics of the disordered vortex lattice.

DELOCALIZATION IN COUPLED ONE-DIMENSIONAL CHAINS

A weakly disordered quasi-one-dimensional tight-binding hopping model with

Majorana fermions in strongly interacting helical liquids

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