We demonstrate the remnant presence of initial correlations in the steady-state electrical current $j_S$ flowing between low-dimensional interacting leads. The leads are described as Luttinger liquids and electrons can tunnel via a quantum point contact. We derive an analytic result for the time-dependent current and show that ground-state correlations have a large impact on the relaxation and long-time behavior. In particular, the $I\mathrm{\text{−}}V$ characteristic is not reproduced by quenching the interaction in time. We further present a universal formula of $j_S$ for an arbitrary sequence of interaction quenches and it is established that $j_S$ is history dependent for nonsmooth switching process.

• Received 18 May 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.156802