Absence of localization in a disordered one-dimensional ring threaded by an Aharonov-Bohm flux.

Absence of localization is demonstrated analytically to leading order in weak disorder in a one-dimensional Anderson model of a ring threaded by an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) flux. The result follows from adapting an earlier perturbation treatment of disorder in a superconducting ring subjected to an imaginary vector potential proportional to a depinning field for flux lines bound to random columnar defects parallel to the axis of the ring. The absence of localization in the ring threaded by an AB flux for sufficiently weak disorder is compatible with large free-electron-type persistent current obtained in recent studies of the above model.