PERSISTENT CURRENTS IN MESOSCOPIC HUBBARD RINGS WITH SPIN-ORBIT INTERACTION

The effect of spin-orbit interaction on persistent currents in mesoscopic Hubbard rings threaded by an Aharonov-Bohm flux is investigated, with attention focused on orbital magnetism. The non-perturbative treatment of the spin-orbit interaction developed by Meir et al. is combined with the Bethe ansatz solution in order to deal with this problem exactly. We find that the interplay of spin-orbit interaction and electron-electron interaction plays a crucial role, bringing about some remarkable effects on orbital magnetism.