title: Electron transport in granular metals.
abstract: We consider thermodynamic and transport properties of a long granular array with strongly connected grains (intergrain conductance g>>1). We find that the system's conductance and differential capacitance exhibits activated behavior, approximately exp([-T(*)/T]. The gap T(*) represents the energy needed to create a long single-electron charge soliton propagating through the array. This scale is parametrically larger than the energy at which conventional perturbation theory breaks down.
authors.affiliation: Institut für theoretische Physik, Zülpicher Strasse 77, 50937 Köln, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Altland
authors.forename: Leonid I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Glazman
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kamenev