Incoherent scatterer in a Luttinger liquid: a new paradigmatic limit

Alexander Altland, Yuval Gefen, Bernd Rosenow

Published 2011-04-15, updated 2012-04-17Version 2

We address the problem of a Luttinger liquid with a scatterer that allows for both coherent and incoherent scattering channels. The asymptotic behavior at zero temperature is governed by a new stable fixed point: a Goldstone mode dominates the low energy dynamics, leading to a universal behavior. This limit is marked by equal probabilities for forward and backward scattering. Notwithstanding this non-trivial scattering pattern, we find that the shot noise as well as zero cross-current correlations vanish. We thus present a paradigmatic picture of an impurity in the Luttinger model, alternative to the Kane-Fisher picture.