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Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Quantum corrections to the Wigner crystal: A Hartree-Fock expansion

Fabio Bagarello, G. Morchio, Franco Strocchi

Published Aug 15, 1993• 16 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The quantum corrections to the two-dimensional Wigner crystal, for filling \ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\le}1/3, are discussed by using a Hartree-Fock expansion based on wave functions which are (i) related to one another by magnetic translations, (ii) orthonormal, and (iii) strongly localized. Such wave functions are constructed in terms of Gaussians that are localized at the sites of a triangular (Wigner) lattice and have a small overlap c. The ground-state energy per particle is calculated by an expansion in \ensuremath{\surd}\ensuremath{\nu} and in \ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\equiv}${\mathit{c}}^{1/4}$, which is rapidly convergent and stable under the thermodynamical limit. In particular, in this limit the cancellation of the infrared divergences occur order by order in the above expansion. The accurate control on the approximations allows a clear-cut comparison with the energy obtained by the Laughlin ansatz on the ground state and the numerical results confirm that the Wigner-crystal picture is energetically favored with respect to the Laughlin state for \ensuremath{\nu}1/9.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.48.5306

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The quantum corrections to the two-dimensional Wigner crystal, for filling \ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\le}1/3, are discussed by using a Hartree-Fock expansion based on wave functions which are (i) related to one another by magnetic translations, (ii) orthonormal, and (iii) strongly localized. Such wave functions are constructed in terms of Gaussians that are localized at the sites of a triangular (Wigner) lattice and have a small overlap c. The ground-state energy per particle is calculated by an expansion in \ensuremath{\surd}\ensuremath{\nu} and in \ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\equiv}c1/4{\mathit{c}}^{1/4}c1/4, which is rapidly convergent and stable under the thermodynamical limit. In particular, in this limit the cancellation of the infrared divergences occur order by order in the above expansion. The accurate control on the approximations allows a clear-cut comparison with the energy obtained by the Laughlin ansatz on the ground state and the numerical results confirm that the Wigner-crystal picture is energetically favored with respect to the Laughlin state for \ensuremath{\nu}1/9.
We propose a ground-state trial wave function for a two-dimensional Wigner crystal in a strong perpendicular magnetic field. The wave function includes Laughlin-Jastrow correlations between electron pairs, and may be interpreted as a crystal state of composite fermions or composite bosons. Treating the power mmm of the Laughlin-Jastrow factor as a variational parameter, we use quantum Monte Carlo simulations to compute the energy of these new states. We find that our wave functions have lower energy than existing crystalline wave functions in the lowest Landau level. Our results are consistent with experimental observations of the filling factor at which the transition between the fractional quantum Hall liquid and the Wigner crystal occurs for electron systems. Exchange contributions to the wave functions are estimated quantitatively and shown to be negligible for sufficiently small filling factors.
Abstract. A simple and commonly employed approximate technique with which one can examine spatially disordered systems when strong electronic correlations are present is based on the use of real-space unrestricted self-consistent Hartree-Fock wave functions. In such an approach the disorder is treated exactly while the correlations are treated approximately. In this report we critique the success of this approximation by making comparisons between such solutions and the exact wave functions for the Anderson-Hubbard model. Due to the sizes of the complete Hilbert spaces for these problems, the comparisons are restricted to small one-dimensional chains, up to ten sites, and a 4x4 two-dimensional cluster, and at 1/2 filling these Hilbert spaces contain about 63,500 and 166 million states, respectively. We have completed these calculations both at and away from 1/2 filling. This approximation is based on a variational approach which minimizes the Hartree-Fock energy, and we have completed comparisons of the exact and Hartree-Fock energies. However, in order to assess the success of this approximation in reproducing ground-state correlations we have completed comparisons of the local charge and spin correlations, including the calculation of the overlap of the Hartree-Fock wave functions with those of the exact solutions. We find that this approximation reproduces the local charge densities to quite a high accuracy, but that the local spin correlations, as represented by 〈Si · Sj〉, are not as well represented. In addition to these comparisons, we discuss the properties of the spin degrees of freedom in the HF approximation, and where in the disorderinteraction phase diagram such physics may be important. PACS numbers: 71.27.+a,71.23.-k,71.10.-wCritiquing HF for the Anderson-Hubbard Model 2 1.
The semiclassical $\ensuremath{\hbar}$ expansion of the one-particle density matrix for a two-dimensional Fermi gas is calculated within the Wigner transform method of B. Grammaticos and A. Voros [Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 123, 359 (1979)], originally developed in the context of nuclear physics. The method of Grammaticos and Voros has the virtue of preserving both the Hermiticity and idempotency of the density matrix to all orders in the $\ensuremath{\hbar}$ expansion. As a topical application, we use our semiclassical expansion to go beyond the local-density approximation for the construction of the total dipole-dipole interaction energy functional of a two-dimensional, spin-polarized dipolar Fermi gas. We find a finite, second-order gradient correction to the Hartree-Fock energy, which takes the form $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}{(\mathbf{\ensuremath{\nabla}}\ensuremath{\rho})}^{2}/\sqrt{\ensuremath{\rho}}$, with $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$ being small ($|\ensuremath{\varepsilon}|\ensuremath{\ll}1$) and negative. We test the quality of the corrected energy by comparing it with the exact results available for harmonic confinement. Even for small particle numbers, the gradient correction to the dipole-dipole energy provides a significant improvement over the local-density approximation.
The two-dimensional Wigner crystals are studied with the variational quantum Monte Carlo method. The close relationship between the ground-state wave function and the collective excitations in the system is illustrated, and used to guide the construction of the ground-state wave function of the strongly correlated solid. Exchange, correlation, and magnetic-field effects all give rise to distinct physical phenomena. In the absence of any external magnetic field, interesting spin orderings are observed in the ground state of the electron crystal in various two-dimensional lattices. In particular, two-dimensional bipartite lattices are shown not to lead necessarily to an antiferromagnetic ground state. In the quantum Hall effect regime, a strong magnetic field introduces energy and length scales. The magnetic field quenches the kinetic energy and poses constraints on how the electrons may correlate with each other. Care is taken to ensure the appropriate translational properties of the wave function when the system is in a uniform magnetic field. We have examined the exchange, intra-Landau-level correlation as well as Landau-level-mixing effects with various variational wave functions. We also determine their dependences on the experimental parameters such as the carrier effective mass at a modulation-doped semiconductor heterojunction. Our results, when combined with some recent calculations for the energy of the fractional quantum Hall liquid including Landau-level-mixing, show quantitatively that in going from n doping to p doping in GaAs/Alx{\mathrm{Al}}_{\mathit{x}}Alx​${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$As heterojunction systems, the crossover filling factor from the fractional quantum Hall liquid to the Wigner crystal changes from filling factor \ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\sim}1/5 to \ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\sim}1/3. This lends strong support to the claim that the observed reentrant insulating phases around \ensuremath{\nu}=1/5 for n-doped and around \ensuremath{\nu}=1/3 for p-doped high-mobility samples are primarily caused by electron-electron interaction effects. We discuss the possible implications of our theoretical results for some recent experiments carried out in the quantum Hall regime in search of the electron solid.
In the first part I perform Hartree-Fock calculations to show that quantum dots (i.e., two-dimensional systems of up to twenty interacting electrons in an external parabolic potential) undergo a gradual transition to a spin-polarized Wigner crystal with increasing magnetic field strength. The phase diagram and ground state energies have been determined. I tried to improve the ground state of the Wigner crystal by introducing a Jastrow ansatz for the wave function and performing a variational Monte Carlo calculation. The existence of so called magic numbers was also investigated. Finally, I also calculated the heat capacity associated with the rotational degree of freedom of deformed many-body states and suggest an experimental method to detect Wigner crystals. The second part of the thesis investigates infinite nuclear matter on a cubic lattice. The exact thermal formalism describes nucleons with a Hamiltonian that accommodates on-site and next-neighbor parts of the central, spin-exchange and isospin-exchange interaction. Using auxiliary field Monte Carlo methods, I show that energy and basic saturation properties of nuclear matter can be reproduced. A first order phase transition from an uncorrelated Fermi gas to a clustered system is observed by computing mechanical and thermodynamical quantities such as compressibility, heat capacity, entropy and grand potential. The structure of the clusters is investigated with the help two-body correlations. I compare symmetry energy and first sound velocities with literature and find reasonable agreement. I also calculate the energy of pure neutron matter and search for a similar phase transition, but the survey is restricted by the infamous Monte Carlo sign problem. Also, a regularization scheme to extract potential parameters from scattering lengths and effective ranges is investigated.
We calculate the ground-state phase diagram of the homogeneous electron gas in two dimensions within the Hartree-Fock approximation. At high density, we find stable solutions, where the electronic charge and spin density form an incommensurate crystal having more crystal sites than electrons, whereas the commensurate Wigner crystal is favored at lower densities, ${r}_{s}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}1.22$. Our explicit calculations demonstrate that the homogeneous Fermi-liquid state, though being an exact stationary solution of the Hartree-Fock equations, is never the Hartree-Fock ground state of the electron gas.