Quantum coherence in a model of strongly correlated quantum dots

The building up of quantum coherence among coupled mesoscopic objects is studied in the present paper with a model of "ideal" quantum dots. With strong Coulomb repulsion we show that quantum coherence between dots can build up at an energy scale much larger than energy-level spacing if the number of electrons per dot is fractional. The self-consistent ladder approximation (SCLA) is applied to study the quantum coherences in the two-dot and triple-dot systems where we show how quantum coherence manifests itself in the electron spectral function and in the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect.