Transport of Correlated Electrons through Disordered Chains: A Perspective on Entanglement, Conductance, and Disorder Averaging

Abstract: We investigate electron transport in disordered Hubbard chains contacted to macroscopic leads, via the non-equilibrium Green's functions technique. We observe a cross-over of currents and conductances at finite bias which depends on the relative strength of disorder and interactions. The finite-size scaling of the conductance is highly dependent on the interaction strength, and exponential attenuation is not always seen. We provide a proof that the Coherent Potential Approximation, a widely used method for treating disorder averages, fulfils particle conservation at finite bias with or without electron correlations. Finally, our results hint that the observed trends in conductance due to interactions and disorder also appear as signatures in the single-site entanglement entropy.