Effect of phonon induced spin-flip processes on correlated quantum dot kinetics

We present a theoretical analysis of relaxation processes in a correlated quantum dot (QD) coupled to a reservoir in the presence of electron-phonon interaction. The effect of both electron-phonon interaction and Coulomb correlations on system's kinetics is analyzed by means of equations of motion for generalized non-equilibrium Green's functions. It is shown that phonon-assisted tunneling enhances the relaxation processes in a correlated quantum dot. Moreover, electron-phonon interaction changes stationary values and typical relaxation rates of the second-order correlation functions for localized electrons. In spite of the fact that electron-phonon interaction is spin independent, it strongly influences spin correlations in the presence of Coulomb interactions between localized electrons. This effect appears to be due to phonon-induced spin-flip processes of localized electrons.