Equivalence of topological and scattering approaches to quantum pumping (Q981708): Difference between revisions

Quantum pumps which depend on time periodically and adiabatically are considered. Two descriptions of charge transport for such pumps are compared. The first description, referred to here as the ``topological approach'', is due to \textit{D. Thouless} [Phys. Rev. B 27, No.~10, 6083--6087 (1983), \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.27.6083}]; and the second, the ``scattering approach'', is due \textit{M. Büttiker, H. Thomas} and \textit{A. Prêtre} [Z. Phys. B 94, No.~1--2, 133--137 (1994), \url{doi:10.1007/BF01307664}]. In physical terms, the two descriptions are rather different but there is a mathematical relation between the two as was shown in an earlier work by the second and third authors. In the present work, a mathematical correspondence is again established but in a setting that is more general in two respects. First the correspondance is established in a multi-channel setting. Secondly, the assumption of spatial periodicity, originally required in the topological approach, is dispensed with by introducing a bundle and hence a Chern number (which is the charge transport) that applies directly to the infinite, non-periodic system; this is Theorem 1. This extended topological approach is then shown to be equivalent to the scattering approach (Theorem 2).