Fundamental Problems of Mesoscopic Physics: Interactions and Decoherence

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, held in Granada, Spain, 6-12 September 2003
Mesoscopic physics deals with effects at submicron and nanoscales where the conventional wisdom of macroscopic averaging is no longer applicable. A wide variety of new devices have recently evolved, all extremely promising for major novel directions in technology, including carbon nanotubes, ballistic quantum dots, hybrid mesoscopic junctions made of different type of normal, superconducting and ferromagnetic materials. This, in turn, demands a profound understanding of fundamental physical phenomena on mesoscopic scales. As a result, the forefront of fundamental research in condensed matter has been moved to the areas where the interplay between electron-electron interactions and quantum interference of phase-coherent electrons scattered by impurities and/or boundaries is the key to such understanding. An understanding of decoherence as well as other effects of the interactions is crucial for developing future electronic, photonic and spintronic devices, including the element base for quantum computation.