Indirect Acquisition of Aharonov–Bohm Phase via the Coulomb-interaction and Breakdown of Onsager–Büttiker Symmetry Relation

We study the Coulomb-interaction-induced Aharonov–Bohm (AB) oscillations in the linear response transport through a remote quantum dot (QD), which has no tunnel coupling but has Coulomb coupling with the QD embedded in one arm of an AB interferometer (ABI). We show that the Coulomb-interaction-induced AB effect is characterized by the charge susceptibility of a remote QD in a weak interaction regime. When the ABI is out of equilibrium, the Onsager–Buttiker symmetry relation of the linear conductance through a remote QD is broken even if the remote system is in the linear response transport regime. Therefore, within the weak interaction regime, the remote QD can obtain nonequilibrium information of the ABI, which cannot be directly acquired from the measurement of the tunneling current through the ABI.