In this review, we discuss the electronic structure of finite quantal systems on the nanoscale. After a few general remarks on the many-particle physics of the harmonic oscillator -- likely being the most studied example for the many-body systems of finite quantal systems, we discuss properties of metal clusters, quantum dots and cold atoms in traps. We address magic numbers, shape deformation, magnetism, particle localization, and vortex formation in rotating systems.
In this review, we discuss the electronic structure of finite quantal systems on the nanoscale. After a few general remarks on the many-particle physics of the harmonic oscillator -- likely being the most studied example for the many-body systems of finite quantal systems, we discuss properties of metal clusters, quantum dots and cold atoms in traps. We address magic numbers, shape deformation, magnetism, particle localization, and vortex formation in rotating systems.
The main theme of this review is the many-body physics of vortices in quantum droplets of bosons or fermions in the limit of small particle numbers. Systems of interest include cold atoms in traps as well as electrons confined in quantum dots. When set to rotate, these in principle different quantum systems show remarkable analogies. The topics reviewed include the structure of the finite rotating many-body state, universality of vortex formation and localization of vortices in both bosonic and fermionic systems, and the emergence of particle-vortex composites in the quantum Hall regime. An overview of the computational many-body techniques sets focus on the configuration-interaction and density-functional methods. Studies of quantum droplets with one or several particle components, where vortices as well as coreless vortices may occur, are reviewed, and theoretical as well as experimental challenges are discussed.
This paper presents a few case studies of finite electron systems for which strong correlations play a dominant role. In simple metal clusters, the valence electrons determine the stability and shape of the clusters. The ionic skeleton of alkali metals is soft, and cluster geometries are often solely determined by electron correlations. In quantum dots and rings, the electrons may be confined by an external electrostatic potential formed by a gated heterostructure. In the low-density limit, the electrons may form the so-called Wigner molecules, for which the many-body quantum spectra reveal the classical vibration modes. High rotational states increase the tendency for the electrons to localize. At low angular momenta, the electrons may form a quantum Hall liquid with vortices. In this case, the vortices act as quasi-particles with long-range effective interactions that localize in a vortex molecule, in much analogy with the electron localization at strong rotation.
This dissertation investigates properties of two-dimensional many-body systems. Studies are performed using the Spin-Density Functional Theory with the Local Spin-Density Approximation, and numerical exact diagonalization. The properties studied include symmetry-breaking states in few-electron quantum dots, gaps in confined few-body systems, magnetic properties of cold fermionic atoms in optical lattices, and vortex formation in few-body systems. The dissertation also studies the properties of the SDFT-LSDA method for many-body calculations itself. The dissertation comprises five original papers, which are presented following an introduction to the fields of research, and the methods used, and the systems studied. Paper I investigates symmetry-breaking states in quantum dots, and the reliability of SDFT-LSDA for such systems. It is found that SDFT-LSDA may introduce artificial energy splittings between the members of a degenerate spin multiplet in the ground state. Paper II investigates the reliability of SDFT-LSDA when used to calculate gaps, and addition and removal energies in few-body systems. It is found that, contrary to studies of atoms and bilk solids, Kohn-Sham eigenvalues can be used to calculate addition and removal energies in parabolically confined systems. Also, in Paper II, van der Waals blockade is predicted to occur in systems of cold atoms, in analogy to Coulomb blockade in electronic systems. In Papers III and IV, mean-field theory is used to study the magnetic properties of cold fermionic atoms in an optical lattice. The results are compared with a similar study for quantum-dot lattices. It is found that there is a rich magnetic phase diagram, with non-magnetic, ferromagnetic, and anti-ferromagnetic states. The phase diagram of the optical lattice is found to be very similar to the phase diagram of the quantum-dot lattice. Paper V uses exact diagonalization to study vortex formation in rotating few-body quantum systems. Systems consisting of Coulomb-interacting fermions (electrons), Coulomb-interacting bosons, and bosons with a short-range interaction are studied. It is found that vortex formation in these systems has universal properties.
Investigations of emergent symmetry breaking phenomena occurring in small finite-size systems are reviewed, with a focus on the strongly correlated regime of electrons in two-dimensional semiconductor quantum dots and trapped ultracold bosonic atoms in harmonic traps. Throughout the review we emphasize universal aspects and similarities of symmetry breaking found in these systems, as well as in more traditional fields like nuclear physics and quantum chemistry, which are characterized by very different interparticle forces. A unified description of strongly correlated phenomena in finite systems of repelling particles (whether fermions or bosons) is presented through the development of a two-step method of symmetry breaking at the unrestricted Hartree-Fock level and of subsequent symmetry restoration via post Hartree-Fock projection techniques. Quantitative and qualitative aspects of the two-step method are treated and validated by exact diagonalization calculations.Strongly-correlated phenomena emerging from symmetry breaking include the following.Chemical bonding, dissociation and entanglement (at zero and finite magnetic fields) in quantum dot molecules and in pinned electron molecular dimers formed within a single anisotropic quantum dot, with potential technological applications to solid-state quantum-computing devices.Electron crystallization, with particle localization on the vertices of concentric polygonal rings, and formation of rotating electron molecules (REMs) in circular quantum dots. Such electron molecules exhibit ro-vibrational excitation spectra, in analogy with natural molecules.At high magnetic fields, the REMs are described by parameter-free analytic wave functions, which are an alternative to the Laughlin and composite-fermion approaches, offering a new point of view of the fractional quantum Hall regime in quantum dots (with possible implications for the thermodynamic limit).Crystalline phases of strongly repelling bosons. In rotating traps and in analogy with the REMs, such repelling bosons form rotating boson molecules (RBMs). For a small number of bosons, the RBMs are energetically favored compared with the Gross-Pitaevskii solutions describing vortex formation.We discuss the present status concerning experimental signatures of such strongly correlated states, in view of the promising outlook created by the latest experimental improvements that are achieving unprecedented control over the range and strength of interparticle interactions.
Vortices can form when finite quantal systems are set to rotate. In the limit of small particle numbers the vortex formation in a harmonically trapped fermion system, with repulsively interacting particles, shows similarities to the corresponding boson system, with vortices entering the rotating cloud for increasing rotation. We show that for a larger number of fermions, N≳15, the fermion vortices compete and co-exist with (Chamon-Wen) edge-reconstructed ground states, forcing some ground states, for instance the central single vortex, into the spectrum of excited states. Experimentally, the fermion system could for instance be a semiconductor heterostructure, a quantum dot, and the corresponding boson system a magneto optical trap (MOT).
Vortices can form when finite quantal systems are set rotating. In the limit of small particle numbers, the vortex formation in a harmonically trapped fermion system, with repulsively interacting particles, shows similarities to the corresponding boson system, with vortices entering the rotating cloud for increasing rotation. For a larger number of fermions, N ≳ 15, the fermion vortices compete and co-exist with (Chamon–Wen) edge-reconstructed ground states, forcing some ground states, as for example the central single vortex, into the spectrum of excited states. Experimentally, the fermion system could, for instance, be electrons in a semiconductor heterostructure, a quantum dot, and the corresponding boson system, a Bose–Einstein condensate in a magneto optical trap.