Quantum nematic as ground state of a two-dimensional electron gas in a magnetic field

Abstract

We study the ground state of a nematic phase of the two-dimensional electron gas at filling fraction $\nu =1/2$ using a variational wavefunction having Jastrow pair-correlations of the form ${\Pi }_{i<j}(z_i-z_j{)}^2$ and an elliptical Fermi sea. Using the Fermi hypernetted chain approximation we find that below a critical value of the broken symmetry parameter, the nematic phase is energetically favorable as compared to the isotropic state for the second excited Landau level. We also find that below a critical value of the layer ``thickness'' parameter $\lambda$ (and in the actual materials) the quantum nematic is energetically favorable relative to the stripe ordered Wigner crystal phase.

4 two-column pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Anisotropic states of two-dimensional electrons in high magnetic fields

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Symmetry-breaking Fermi surface deformations from central interactions in two dimensions
• Pomeranchuk instability: symmetry breaking and experimental signatures
• Variational Monte-Carlo calculation of the nematic state of the two-dimensional electron gas in a magnetic field
• Competition between Pomeranchuk instabilities in the nematic and hexatic channels in a two-dimensional spinless Fermi fluid
• Metastable anisotropy orientation of nematic quantum Hall fluids