Transport and Persistent Currents in Mesoscopic Rings: Interplay Between Electron-Electron Interaction and Disorder

摘要

The aim of this article is to provide a very general and pedestrian introduction to the notion of persistent currents in mesoscopic systems. Thus, this review is not exhaustive and mainly addressed to non-experts. Step by step, it will be shown that a single-particle picture is insufficient to explain the magnitude and sign of the measured persistent currents. The main idea would be to analyze whether the interplay between disorder and electron-electron interaction could eventually explain this discrepancy. This review gives the opportunity to emphasize the challenges raised by the experiments. Indeed, it will be shown that the amplitude and sign of the measured currents remain until now an open issue.