Eur. Phys. J. B 18, 189-192 (2000)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510070046

Persistent current in metals with a large dephasing rate

Institut für Physik, Universität Augsburg, 86135 Augsburg, Germany

Received: 26 May 2000
Published online: 15 November 2000

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.