  We study Johnson-Nyquist noise in macroscopically inhomogeneous disordered
metals and give a microscopic derivation of the correlation function of the
scalar electric potentials in real space. Starting from the interacting
Hamiltonian for electrons in a metal and the random phase approximation, we
find a relation between the correlation function of the electric potentials and
the density fluctuations which is valid for arbitrary geometry and
dimensionality. We show that the potential fluctuations are proportional to the
solution of the diffusion equation, taken at zero frequency. As an example, we
consider networks of quasi-1D disordered wires and give an explicit expression
for the correlation function in a ring attached via arms to absorbing leads. We
use this result in order to develop a theory of dephasing by electronic noise
in multiply-connected systems.
