Effective electron-electron interactions and magnetic phase transition in a two-dimensional electron liquid

We investigate the spin-dependent effective electron-electron interactions in a uniform system of two-dimensional electrons to understand the spontaneous magnetization expected to occur at very low density. For this purpose, we adopt the Kukkonen-Overhauser form for the effective interactions which are built by accurately determined local-field factors describing the charge and spin fluctuations. The critical behavior of the effective interaction for parallel spin electrons allows us to quantitatively locate the transition to the ferromagnetic state at r_s≈27. When the finite width effects are approximately taken into account the transition occurs at r_s≈30 in agreement with recent quantum Monte Carlo calculations.     

Analytic theory of correlation energy and spin polarization in the 2D electron gas

We present an analytic theory of the pair distribution function and the ground-state energy in a two-dimensional (2D) electron gas with an arbitrary degree of spin polarization. Our approach involves the solution of a zero-energy scattering Schrödinger equation with an effective potential which includes a Fermi term from exchange and kinetic energy and a Bose-like term from Jastrow-Feenberg correlations. The form of the latter is assessed from an analysis of data on a 2D gas of charged bosons. We obtain excellent agreement with data from quantum Monte Carlo studies of the 2D electron gas. In particular, our results for the correlation energy show a quantum phase transition occurring at coupling strength r_s≈24 from the paramagnetic to the fully spin-polarized fluid.     

Exchange-correlation and layer-thickness effects in quasi-two dimensional electron liquids

We demonstrate a replacement of the non-uniform sub-band density of quasi-2D electron layers by an effective uniform-slab density. Exchange, correlation and Fermi-liquid properties are determined via a mapping of the electron liquid to a classical fluid, using the hyper-netted-chain equation inclusive of bridge corrections, (i.e. the CHNC), as a function of the density, spin-polarization, layer width and the temperature. Our parameters-free theory is in good accord with quantum simulations, with effective-mass and spin-susceptibility results for 2D layers found in GaAs/AlGaAs structures.     

Large momentum part of a strongly correlated Fermi gas

It is well known that the momentum distribution of the two-component Fermi gas with large scattering length has a tail proportional to 1/k⁴ at large k. We show that the magnitude of this tail is equal to the adiabatic derivative of the energy with respect to the reciprocal of the scattering length, multiplied by a simple constant. This result holds at any temperature (as long as the effective interaction radius is negligible) and any large scattering length; it also applies to few-body cases. We then show some more connections between the 1/k⁴ tail and various physical quantities, including the pressure at thermal equilibrium and the rate of change of energy in a dynamic sweep of the inverse scattering length.     

Generalized virial theorem and pressure relation for a strongly correlated Fermi gas

For a two-component Fermi gas in the unitarity limit (i.e., with infinite scattering length), there is a well-known virial theorem, first shown by J.E. Thomas et al. A few people rederived this result, and extended it to few-body systems, but their results are all restricted to the unitarity limit. Here I show that there is a generalized virial theorem for FINITE scattering lengths. I also generalize an exact result concerning the pressure to the case of imbalanced populations.     

Energetics of a strongly correlated Fermi gas

The energy of the two-component Fermi gas with the s-wave contact interaction is a simple linear functional of its momentum distribution:

     

Ideal Fermi gases in harmonic oscillator potential traps

We study the thermodynamic properties of an ideal gas of fermions in a harmonic oscillator confining potential. The analogy between this problem and the de Haas–van Alphen effect is discussed and used to obtain analytical results for the chemical potential and specific heat in the case of both isotropic and anisotropic potentials. Step-like behaviour in the chemical potential, first noted in numerical studies, is obtained analytically and shown to result in an oscillatory behaviour of the specific heat when the particle number is varied. The origin of these oscillations is that part of the thermodynamic potential is responsible for the de Haas–van Alphen-type effect. At low temperatures we show analytically that there are significant deviations in the specific heat from the expected linear temperature dependence, again as a consequence of the de Haas–van Alphen part of the thermodynamic potential. Results are given for one, two, and three spatial dimensions. In the anisotropic case we show how the specific heat jumps as the ratio of oscillator frequencies varies.     

Spin polarization of two-dimensional electron system in parabolic potential

We analyze the ground state of the two-dimensional quantum system of electrons confined in a parabolic potential with the system size around 100 at 0 K. We map the system onto a classical system on the basis of the classical-map hypernetted-chain (CHNC) method which has been proven to work in the integral-equation-based analyses of uniform systems and apply classical Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations. We find that, when we decrease the strength of confinement keeping the number of confined electrons fixed, the energy of the spin-polarized state with somewhat lower average density becomes smaller than that of the spin-unpolarized state with somewhat higher average density. This system thus undergoes the transition from the spin-unpolarized state to the spin polarized state and the corresponding critical value of rs estimated from the average density is as low as rs∼0.4 which is much smaller than the rs value for the Wigner lattice formation. When we compare the energies of spin-unpolarized and spin-polarized states for given average density, our data give the critical rs value for the transition between unpolarized and polarized states around 10 which is close to but still smaller than the known possibility of polarization at rs∼27. The advantage of our method is a direct applicability to geometrically complex systems which are difficult to analyze by integral equations and this is an example.     

Generation of the W State through the Cavity-Electron Interaction

We present a scheme to generate the W state through the cavity-electron interaction involving a single-mode cavity and N identical electrons. Successive no-photon detection of the cavity projects the electrons to the desired W state. The time evolution of the electron-cavity system involving cavity decay is also discussed.     

Fermi liquid theory: a renormalization group approach

We show how Fermi liquid theory results can be systematically recovered using a renormalization group (RG) approach. Considering a two-dimensional system with a circular Fermi surface, we derive RG equations at one-loop order for the two-particle vertex function in the limit of small momentum () and energy () transfer and obtain the equation which determines the collective modes of a Fermi liquid. The density-density response function is also calculated. The Landau function (or, equivalently, the Landau parameters F _l ^s and F _l ^a ) is determined by the fixed point value of the -limit of the two-particle vertex function (). We show how the results obtained at one-loop order can be extended to all orders in a loop expansion. Calculating the quasi-particle life-time and renormalization factor at two-loop order, we reproduce the results obtained from two-dimensional bosonization or Ward Identities. We discuss the zero-temperature limit of the RG equations and the difference between the Field Theory and the Kadanoff-Wilson formulations of the RG. We point out the importance of n-body () interactions in the latter. Received: 27 June 1997 / Received in final form: 17 December 1997 / Accepted: 26 January 1998     

Friedel oscillations in a two dimensional Fermi liquid

Within linear response the long range oscillations caused by short or long ranged impurities embedded in an otherwise homogeneous electron gas reflect the singularities of the static response function. By making use of the theory of the many-body local fields and the results of recent quantum Monte Carlo studies we have calculated the exact dependence of the amplitude of these oscillations on the density in a two dimensional electron Fermi liquid.     

One- plus two-body random matrix ensembles with spin: Results for pairing correlations

For EGOE(1+2)-s ensemble for fermions, in the strong coupling region, partial densities over pairing subspaces follow Gaussian form and propagation formulas for their centroids and variances are derived. Similarly for this ensemble: (i) pair transfer strength sums, a statistic for chaos, are shown to follow a simple form; (ii) a quantity used in conductance peak spacings analysis is shown to exhibit bimodal form when pairing is stronger than the exchange interaction.     

A new approach to electron-electron interactions in strongly correlated systems at arbitrary spin-polarization and temperature

The uniform electron fluid is the reference model for density functional calculations. Even for this system, many-body perturbation theory, and related methods become questionable when the density parameter r_s exceeds unity. Hence, quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation has been almost the only applicable method. We review a new approach, which uses a mapping of the quantum fluid to a classical Coulomb fluid, based on density-functional concepts. It is applicable at finite temperatures and arbitrary spin polarizations as well, and correctly recovers even the logarithmic terms in the exchange and correlations energies close to T=0. We show by detailed comparison with available QMC data that the method yields accurate pair-distribution functions, spin-dependent energies, static local-field factors, Landau parameter-based quantities like m∗ and g∗, for strongly coupled electron fluids.     

The chemical potential for the inhomogeneous electron liquid in terms of its kinetic and potential parts with special consideration of the surface potential step and BCS-BEC crossover

The chemical potential μ of a many-body system is valuable since it carries fingerprints of phase changes. Here, we summarize results for μ for a three-dimensional electron liquid in terms of average kinetic and potential energies per particle. The difference between μ and the energy per particle is found to be exactly the electrostatic potential step at the surface. We also present calculations for an integrable one-dimensional many-body system with delta function interactions, exhibiting a BCS-BEC crossover. It is shown that in the BCS regime the chemical potential can be expressed solely in terms of the ground-state energy per particle. A brief discussion is also included of the strong coupling BEC limit.     

First-order density matrices in one dimension for independent fermions and impenetrable bosons in harmonic traps

To complement existing knowledge of the density matrix γF(x,y)${\gamma }_{\mathrm{F}}(x,y)$ of independent fermions for N   particles in one dimension under harmonic confinement, the corresponding matrix γIB(x,y)${\gamma }_{\mathrm{IB}}(x,y)$ for impenetrable bosons is given for N=2$N=2$ and 3 (with the N=4$N=4$ form available also). For fermions the momentum density is then obtained and illustrated numerically for N=10$N=10$. The boson momentum density is studied analytically at high momentum p  , the coefficients of the p⁻⁴$p^{\mathrm{-4}}$ and p⁻⁶$p^{\mathrm{-6}}$ terms being tabulated for N=2–5$N=2\text{–}5$ inclusive. Their dependence on powers of N   is exhibited numerically. Finally, the functional relationship between γIB(x,y)${\gamma }_{\mathrm{IB}}(x,y)$ and γF(x,y)${\gamma }_{\mathrm{F}}(x,y)$ is formally set out and illustrated.     

Self-consistent Overhauser model for the pair distribution function of an electron gas at finite temperature

We present calculations of the spin-averaged pair distribution function g(r) in a homogeneous gas of electrons moving in dimensionality D=3 or D=2 at finite temperature. The model involves the solution of a two-electron scattering problem via an effective potential, which embodies many-body effects through a self-consistent Hartree approximation, leading to two-body wave functions to be averaged over a temperature-dependent distribution of relative momentum for electron pairs. We report illustrative numerical results for g(r) in an intermediate-coupling regime and interpret them in terms of changes of short-range order with increasing temperature.     

Single-particle self-energy and optical conductivity of the simplified Hubbard model

It is shown that the single-particle self-energy of the one and two-dimensional simplified Hubbard model exhibits different behavior characterized by Fermi-liquid, non-Fermi-liquid quasiparticle, or non-quasiparticle excitations, as a function of the strength of the on-site Coulomb repulsionU, temperature, and electron filling. For half-filled lattices, results for the optical conductivity indicate that the d.c. conductivity is zero for all temperatures andU>0.     

Superoperator nonequilibrium Green’s function theory of many-body systems; applications to charge transfer and transport in open junctions

Nonequilibrium Green’s functions provide a powerful tool for computing the dynamical response and particle exchange statistics of coupled quantum systems. We formulate the theory in terms of the density matrix in Liouville space and introduce superoperator algebra that greatly simplifies the derivation and the physical interpretation of all quantities. Expressions for various observables are derived directly in real time in terms of superoperator nonequilibrium Green’s functions (SNGF), rather than the artificial time-loop required in Schwinger’s Hilbert-space formulation. Applications for computing interaction energies, charge densities, average currents, current induced fluorescence, electroluminescence and current fluctuation (electron counting) statistics are discussed.     

Stable and resonant Cooper pairs

A Bethe-Salpeter treatment of Cooper pairs (CPs) based on an ideal Fermi gas (IFG) ‘sea’ yields the familiar stable negative-energy, infinite-lifetime two-particle bound-state if two-hole CPs are ignored. Otherwise, it gives purely imaginary energies and thus unphysical solutions. However, a Bogoliubov transformation to the BCS ground state yields the trivial sound solution plus a nontrivial one. The latter are two-fermion ‘moving CPs’ as positive-energy stable objects for zero center-of-mass momentum (CMM), and finite-lifetime resonant ones for nonzero CMM with a linear dispersion leading term. Hence, Bose-Einstein condensation of such pairs may occur in exactly two dimensions as it cannot with quadratic dispersion.     

Quantum macroscopic equations from Bohm potential and propagation of waves

Bohm’s interpretation of Quantum Mechanics leads to the derivation of a Quantum Kinetic Equation. In the present work, moments of this kinetic equation are taken, thus deriving conservation equations. These macroscopic equations are then applied to study the propagation of longitudinal density perturbations in neutral gases and plasmas, of either fermions or bosons. The dispersion relation is derived and the effect of the Bohm potential shown; the speed of propagation calculated and the difference between fermions and bosons investigated. Pseudosonic waves in quantum plasmas are obtained including the effect of the Bohm potential.