Berezinskii-Kosteriltz-Thouless transition in disordered multi-channel Luttinger liquids

Abstract

We study the phase transition between conducting and insulating states taking place in disordered multi-channel Luttinger liquids with inter-channel interactions. We derive renormalisation group equations which are perturbative in disorder but nonperturbative in interaction. In the vicinity of the simultaneous phase transition in all channels, these equations become a set of coupled Berezinskii--Kosterlitz--Thouless equations, which we analyze within two models: an array of identical wires and a two-channel model with distinct channels. We show that a competition between disorder and interaction results in a variety of phases, expected to be observable at intermediate temperatures where the interaction and disorder are relevant but weak hybridization and the charge-density wave interaction may be ignored.