Scaling Theory of a Compressibility-Driven Metal-Insulator Transition in a Two-Dimensional Electron Fluid

Abstract

We present a scaling description of a metal-insulator transition in two-dimensional electron systems that is driven by a vanishing compressibility rather than a vanishing diffusion coefficient. A small set of basic assumptions leads to a consistent theoretical framework that is compatible with existing transport and compressibility measurements, and allows to make predictions for other observables. We also discuss connections between these ideas and other theories of transitions to an incompressible quantum fluid.

5pp

References in corpus (6)

• Anderson Transitions
• Fermi-liquid instabilities at magnetic quantum phase transitions
• Theory of a continuous Mott transition in two dimensions
• Thermodynamic density of states of two-dimensional GaAs systems near the apparent metal-insulator transition
• Spectroscopic evidence for negative electronic compressibility in a quasi-three-dimensional spin-orbit correlated metal
• Critical Behavior of a Strongly Disordered 2D Electron System: The Cases of Long-Range and Screened Coulomb Interactions