On Transversely Driven Charge-Density Waves

By means of a microscopic theory we calculate the effect of a current flowing transverse to conducting chains on the charge-density wave (CDW) dynamics along the chains. In contrast to a recent prediction (L. Radzihovsky and J. Toner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3711 (1998)) we found that contributions from transverse flows of electron-like and hole-like quasiparticles to the force exhibited by the CDW along the chains act in the opposite directions, so that in case of perfect electron-hole symmetry these contributions cancel each other like in the Hall effect. We discuss also recent experimental verification of the effect and show that the influence of the transverse field on the longitudinal current was very likely provided by the action of a longitudinal current induced by the applied transverse voltage due to the large anisotropy of the CDW compounds. The results have implications for related systems like vortex lattices and stripe phases in high-Tc superconductors. PACS numbers: 71.45.Lr, 72.15.-v, 72.20.Pa Typeset using REVTEX