Theoretical analysis of the transmission phase shift of a quantum dot in the presence of Kondo correlations.

We study the effects of Kondo correlations on the transmission phase shift of a quantum dot coupled to two leads in comparison with the experimental determinations made by Aharonov-Bohm (AB) quantum interferometry. We propose here a theoretical interpretation of these results based on scattering theory combined with Bethe ansatz calculations. We show that there is a factor of 2 difference between the phase of the S-matrix responsible for the shift in the AB oscillations and the one controlling the conductance. Quantitative agreement is obtained with experimental results for two different values of the coupling to the leads.