Conductance of a quantum dot in the Coulomb blockade regime is discussed. At moderately low temperatures, the thermally-assisted transport of electrons through the dot gives way to elastic co-tunneling [1], The amplitude of the elastic co-tunneling is sensitive to the specific structure of electron wave functions in a given sample. The conductance exhibits strong mesoscopic fluctuations [2]. Statistical properties of these fluctuations are reviewed in this lecture. At lower temperatures, conductance through a dot is altered by the Kondo effect, if the number of electrons on the dot is odd. We describe the universal features of the Kondo conductance [3, 4], and briefly discuss the manifestations of this effect in the limiting cases of weak and strong [5] dot-lead coupling.
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