  Anomalies near the conductance threshold of nearly perfect semiconductor
quantum wires are explained in terms of singlet and triplet resonances of
conduction electrons with a single weakly-bound electron in the wire. This is
shown to be a universal effect for a wide range of situations in which the
effective single-electron confinement is weak. The robustness of this generic
behavior is investigated numerically for a wide range of shapes and sizes of
cylindrical wires with a bulge. The dependence on gate voltage, source-drain
voltage and magnetic field is discussed within the framework of an extended
Hubbard model. This model is mapped onto an extended Anderson model, which in
the limit of low temperatures is expected to lead to Kondo resonance physics
and pronounced many-body effects.
