Stokes Paradox, Back Reflections and Interaction-Enhanced Conduction

Interactions in electron systems can lead to viscous flows in which correlations allow electrons to avoid disorder scattering, reducing momentum loss and dissipation. We illustrate this behavior in a viscous pinball model, describing electrons moving in the presence of dilute point-like defects. Conductivity is found to obey an additive relation \(\sigma=\sigma_0+\Delta\sigma\), with a non-interacting Drude contribution \(\sigma_0\) and a contribution \(\Delta\sigma>0\) describing conductivity enhancement due to interactions. The quantity \(\Delta\sigma\) is enhanced by a logarithmically large factor originating from the Stokes paradox at the hydrodynamic lengthscales and, in addition, from an effect of repeated returns to the same scatterer due to backreflection in the carrier-carrier collisions occurring at the ballistic lengthscales. The interplay between these effects is essential at the ballistic-to-viscous crossover.