title: Inelastic electron backscattering in a generic helical edge channel.
abstract: We evaluate the low-temperature conductance of a weakly interacting one-dimensional helical liquid without axial spin symmetry. The lack of that symmetry allows for inelastic backscattering of a single electron, accompanied by forward scattering of another. This joint effect of weak interactions and potential scattering off impurities results in a temperature-dependent deviation from the quantized conductance, δG ∝ T4. In addition, δG is sensitive to the position of the Fermi level. We determine numerically the parameters entering our generic model for the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang Hamiltonian of a HgTe/CdTe quantum well in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Yale University, 217 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rachel
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: von Oppen
authors.forename: Leonid I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Glazman