Nonexponential Quasiparticle Decay and Phase Relaxation in Low-Dimensional Conductors

Abstract

We show that in low-dimensional disordered conductors, the quasiparticle decay and the relaxation of the phase are not exponential processes. In the quasi-one-dimensional case, both behave at small time as e(-(t/tau(in))3/2) where the inelastic time, tau(in), identical for both processes, is a power T-2/3 of the temperature. The nonexponential quasiparticle decay results from a modified derivation of the Fermi golden rule. This result implies the existence of an unusual distribution of relaxation times.