Breakdown of the Wiedemann-Franz law in an interacting quantum Hall metamaterial

Abstract

Coulomb interactions deeply affect quantum transport in simple ballistic systems, but their impact on scaled up ballistic structures remains underexplored. Here we theoretically consider a chain of small metallic dots with frozen charge dynamics, connected by ballistic channels. We identify a neutral mode of transport, that is specific to a chain with at least two islands, and entwines local diffusion by neutral excitations with long-range correlations between islands' charge states. We show, as an experimentally measurable signature of this many-body behavior, that the Wiedemann-Franz law is violated with a Lorenz ratio scaling as the square root of the chain's length.