English

Charge Transport in the Dense Two-Dimensional Coulomb Gas

Statistical Mechanics 2009-10-30 v2

Abstract

The dynamics of a globally neutral system of diffusing Coulomb charges in two dimensions, driven by an applied electric field, is studied in a wide temperature range around the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. I argue that the commonly accepted ``free particle drift'' mechanism of charge transport in this system is limited to relatively low particle densities. For higher densities, I propose a modified picture involving collective ``partner transfer'' between bound pairs. The new picture provides a natural explanation for recent experimental and numerical findings which deviate from standard theory. It also clarifies the origin of dynamical scaling in this context.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9704196,
  title  = {Charge Transport in the Dense Two-Dimensional Coulomb Gas},
  author = {Dierk Bormann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9704196},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

4 pages, RevTeX, 2 eps figures included; some typos corrected, final version to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett