Nonequilibrium mesoscopic Fermi-reservoir distribution and particle current through a coherent quantum system

We study particle current and occupation distribution in a recently proposed model for coherent quantum transport. In this model a system connected to mesoscopic Fermi reservoirs (mesoreservoir) is driven out of equilibrium by the action of superreservoirs with prescribed temperatures and chemical potentials described by a simple dissipative mechanism with the Lindblad equation. We compare exact (numerical) results for the nonequilibrium steady-state particle current with theoretical expectations based on the Landauer formula and show that the model reproduces the behavior of coherent quantum systems in the expected parameter region. We also obtain the mesoreservoir occupation distribution in the nonequilibrium steady-state and compare them with the occupation distribution in the leads in usual description of coherent quantum transport.