Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement
Correlated Electrons on Square Lattices
Jean‐Louis Pichard
Abstract
Using a few electrons interacting via a U/r Coulomb repulsion on two dimensional L ×L square lattices with periodic boundary conditions and nearest neighbor hopping t, I review on results of systematic exact finite size numerical studies of the ground state as a function of the Coulomb energy to kinetic energy ratio rs=UL/(2t√πN). Studies of the persistent currents, of the magnetization, of the inter-particle spacing distributions, of a simple analytical ansatz converge towards the same conclusion: there is a new regime for intermediate values rs, where delocalized electrons co-exist with a solid Wigner molecule. The study of this new regime, first done in the presence of random potentials, is extended to the clean lattice limit. The results are consistent, for a finite size lattice, with a possibility proposed by Andreev and Lifshitz for the continuous thermodynamic limit: a quantum crystal may have delocalized defects without melting, the number of sites of the crystalline array being smaller than the total number of particles.