Theoretical studies will be conducted on the transport and thermodynamic properties of solids at low temperature focusing on the physics of novel microstructures and semiconducting heterostructures. The research will extend further our understanding of quantum mechanical interference effects and their interplay with Coulomb interactions and high magnetic field in mesoscopic and macroscopic conductors. Topics will include thermodynamic properties of mesoscopic systems in both non- interacting and interacting models, mesoscopic fluctuation phenomena in the ballistic regime and their explanation in terms of the quantum theory of chaotic systems, and both the mesoscopic and macroscopic properties of two-dimensional electron systems in high magnetic field. Calculations will be done analytically using impurity-averaged perturbation theory, semi-classical methods and random matrix theory, and numerically using recursive Green function techniques, for instance. The objective is to obtain a quantitative and microscopic description of phenomena which are currently at the very forefront of experimental investigations and which have important implications for future microelectronic technology. %%% Research will be done on electrical transport (current) in devices which are of intermediate between large (macroscopic) and atomic (microscopic) size. This mesoscopic region is such that microscopic effects are seen on the macroscopic scale resulting in unusual and useful physical phenomena. Besides affecting our understanding of basic physics, these studies will have important ramifications for microelectronics.
