arXiv:cond-mat/9910271 · Europhysics Letters (EPL)
Signatures of an intermediate 2 d Coulomb phase at low temperatures
Giuliano Benenti, Xavier Waintal, J.‐L. Pichard
Abstract
The study of the ground state of spinless fermions in 2 d disordered clusters ( Phys. Rev. Lett. , 83 (1999) 1826) has suggested the existence of a new quantum phase for intermediate Coulomb energy to kinetic energy ratios r s . Exact diagonalization of the same small clusters shows that its low-energy excitations (quantum ergodicity above a few “hexatic” excitations characterized by oriented currents) significantly differ from those occurring in the Fermi glass (weak r s ) and in the pinned Wigner crystal (large r s ). The “hexatic” excitations vanish for temperatures of order of the Fermi temperature.