title: Nonlinear conductance of long quantum wires at a conductance plateau transition: where does the voltage drop?
abstract: We calculate the linear and nonlinear conductance of spinless fermions in clean, long quantum wires, where short-ranged interactions lead locally to equilibration. Close to the quantum phase transition, where the conductance jumps from zero to one conductance quantum, the conductance obtains a universal form governed by the ratios of temperature, bias voltage, and gate voltage. Asymptotic analytic results are compared to solutions of a Boltzmann equation which includes the effects of three-particle scattering. Surprisingly, we find that for long wires the voltage predominantly drops close to one end of the quantum wire due to a thermoelectric effect.
authors.affiliation: Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems and Institut für Theoretische Physik, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Micklitz
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Levchenko
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rosch