Coulomb blockade of tunneling into a quasi-one-dimensional wire

Tunneling into the correlated electron system in a quantum wire is considered. For the first time, the problem is solved for an arbitrary number of transverse electron modes in the wire. The tunnel density of states has power-law asymptotics at low energies, ν(ε)∝${\mathrm{\epsilon }}^{\mathrm{\alpha }}$. A sample formula expressing α in terms of velocities of soundlike excitations (plasmons) propagating along the wire is obtained and the eigenvalue equation for these velocities is found. The general result for α allows one to extrapolate correctly between the known cases of a one-mode wire and a wide three-dimensional wire.