Horizon in random matrix theory, the Hawking radiation, and flow of cold atoms.

We propose a Gaussian scalar field theory in a curved 2D metric with an event horizon as the low-energy effective theory for a weakly confined, invariant random matrix ensemble (RME). The presence of an event horizon naturally generates a bath of Hawking radiation, which introduces a finite temperature in the model in a nontrivial way. A similar mapping with a gravitational analogue model has been constructed for a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) pushed to flow at a velocity higher than its speed of sound, with Hawking radiation as sound waves propagating over the cold atoms. Our work suggests a threefold connection between a moving BEC system, black-hole physics and unconventional RMEs with possible experimental applications.

Jumps in current-voltage characteristics in disordered films.

We argue that giant jumps of current at finite voltages observed in disordered films of InO, TiN, and YSi manifest a bistability caused by the overheating of electrons. One of the stable states is overheated and thus low resistive, while the other, high-resistive state is heated much less by the same voltage. The bistability occurs provided that cooling of electrons is inefficient and the temperature dependence of the equilibrium resistance R(T) is steep enough. We use experimental R(T) and assume phonon mechanism of the cooling taking into account its strong suppression by disorder. Our description of the details of the I-V characteristics does not involve adjustable parameters and turns out to be in quantitative agreement with the experiments. We propose experiments for more direct checks of this physical picture.

Density of states for almost-diagonal random matrices.

We study the density of states (DOS) for disordered systems whose spectral statistics can be described by a Gaussian ensemble of almost-diagonal Hermitian random matrices. The matrices have independent random entries H(i > or =j) with small off-diagonal elements: <|H(i not equal to j)|2> << <|H(ii)|2> approximately 1. Using the recently suggested method of a virial expansion in the number of interacting energy levels [J. Phys. A 36, 8265 (2003)], we calculate the leading correction to the Poissonian DOS in the cases of the Gaussian orthogonal and unitary ensembles. We apply the general formula to the critical power-law banded random matrices and the unitary Moshe-Neuberger-Shapiro model and compare the DOS's of these models.