Supercurrent States in 1D Finite-Size Rings

Abstract

We consider topological supercurrent excitations (SC) in 1D mesoscopic rings. Under certain conditions such excitations are well-defined except for (i) a tunneling between resonating states with clockwise and anti-clockwise currents, which may be characterized by the amplitude $\Delta$, and (ii) a decay of SC assisted by phonons of the substrate, both effects being macroscopically small. Most attention is paid to the calculation of the macroscopic scaling of $\Delta$ (the main superfluid characteristic of a mesoscopic system) under different conditions: a commensurate system, a system with single impurity, and a disordered system. The results are in a very good agreement with the exact-diagonalization spectra of the boson Hubbard models. Apart from really 1D electron wires we discuss two other important experimental systems: the 2D electron gas in the FQHE state and quasi-1D superconducting rings. We suggest some experimental setups for studying SC, e.g., via persistent current measurements, resonant electro-magnetic absorption or echo signals, and relaxation of the metastable current states.