Influence of Long-Range Coulomb Forces and Dissipation on the Persistent Current of a Wigner Crystal-Ring

The influence of long-range Coulomb forces on the persistent current of a pinned Wigner crystal-ring is considered. A simple method is proposed for how to take into account Coulomb effects for the macroscopic quantum tunneling of the Wigner crystal. It is shown that unscreened Coulomb interactions increase the stiffness of the Wigner lattice. This leads to additional suppression of the amplitude of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations, but makes the predicted anomalous temperature dependence of the persistent current more pronounced. The impact of dissipation on the persistent current of a Wigner crystal-ring is also studied.