Measurement of high order current correlators

K. V. Bayandin, A. V. Lebedev, G. B. Lesovik

Published 2009-06-02Version 1

The feasibility of measuring high-order current correlators by means of a linear detector is analyzed. Two different types of measurements are considered: measurement of fluctuation power spectrum and measurement of unequal-time current correlators at fixed points in time. In both cases, formally exact expressions in terms of Keldysh time-ordered electron current operators are derived for the detector output. An explicit time ordering is found for the current correlators under the expectation operator used in measurements of high order unequal-time current correlators. The situation when a detector measures current correlators at different points of a conductor is considered.