Persistent Currents in Continuous One-Dimensional Disordered Rings within the Hartree–Fock Approximation

We present numerical results for the zero temperature persistent currents carried by interacting spinless electrons in disordered one-dimensional continuous rings. The disorder potential is described by a collection of δ-functions at random locations and strengths. The calculations are performed by a self-consistent Hartree–Fock (HF) approximation. Because the HF approximation retains the concept of single-electron levels, we compare the statistics of energy levels of noninteracting electrons with those of interacting electrons as well as of the level persistent currents. We find that the e–e interactions alter the levels and samples persistent currents and introduces a preffered diamagnetic current direction. In contrast to the analogous calculations that recently appeared in the literature for interacting spinless electrons in the presence of moderate disorder in tight-binding models we find no suppression of the persistent currents due to the e–e interactions.