PERSISTENT CURRENTS IN THE PRESENCE OF A TRANSPORT CURRENT

We have considered a system of a metallic ring coupled to two electron reservoirs. We show that in the presence of a transport current, the persistent current can flow in a ring, even in the absence of a magnetic field. This is purely a quantum effect and is related to the current magnification in the loop. These persistent currents can be observed if one tunes the Fermi energy near the antiresonances of the total transmission coefficient or the two-port conductance. © 1995 The American Physical Society.