Effect of inelastic scattering on the average Coulomb-blockade peak height in quantum dots

The average height of the Coulomb-blockade conductance peaks for chaotic elastic scattering is known to increase by a factor of 4/3 upon breaking time-reversal symmetry. We calculate the temperature dependence of this factor in the regime where the inelastic scattering rate ${\Gamma }_{\mathrm{in}}$ is greater than the mean tunneling rate ${\Gamma }_{\mathrm{el}},$ which itself is less than the mean level spacing Δ. Comparison to recent experimental data by Folk et al. (Folk, Patel, Marcus, Duruöz, and Harris, cond-mat/0008052) demonstrates that ${\Gamma }_{\mathrm{in}}$ lies below ${\Gamma }_{\mathrm{el}}$ and hence also below Δ, consistent with the low-energy suppression of inelastic electron-electron scattering in quantum dots.