Persistent current in metals with a large dephasing rate

Abstract

In a weakly disordered metal electron interactions are responsible for both decoherence of the quasi-particles as well as for quantum corrections to thermodynamic properties. We consider electrons which are interacting with two-level-systems. We show that the two-level-systems enhance the average equilibrium (``persistent'') current in an ensemble of mesoscopic rings. The result supports the recent suggestion that two puzzles in mesoscopic physics may be related: The low temperature saturation of the dephasing time and the high persistent current in rings.