Conductance through strongly interacting rings in a magnetic field

We study the conductance through finite Aharonov-Bohm rings of interacting electrons weakly coupled to non-interacting leads at two arbitrary sites. This model can describe an array of quantum dots with a large charging energy compared to the interdot overlap. As a consequence of the spin-charge separation, which occurs in these highly correlated systems, the transmittance is shown to present pronounced dips for particular values of the magnetic flux piercing the ring. We analyze this effect by numerical and analytical means and show that the zero-temperature equilibrium conductance in fact presents these striking features which could be observed experimentally. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.