title: Equilibration of a one-dimensional Wigner crystal.
abstract: Equilibration of a one-dimensional system of interacting electrons requires processes that change the numbers of left- and right-moving particles. At low temperatures such processes are strongly suppressed, resulting in slow relaxation towards equilibrium. We study this phenomenon in the case of spinless electrons with strong long-range repulsion, when the electrons form a one-dimensional Wigner crystal. We find the relaxation rate by accounting for the umklapp scattering of phonons in the crystal. For the integrable model of particles with inverse-square repulsion, the relaxation rate vanishes.
authors.affiliation: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Matveev
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Andreev
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pustilnik