ABSTRACT
The nature of the ground state of degenerate two dimensional (2D) fermions at zero magnetic field is an outstanding open problem, which has not been deciphered despite decades of research. In the absence of disorder, the ground state is believed to be determined by the interplay between the kinetic energy, E f, and the inter-particle interaction energy, Ec = e2/ica, where a = (nn)~1^ 2 is the typical inter-particle distance, n is the areal particle density, and k is the host dielectric constant. The relative importance of the two energy scales is characterized by rs = a/ao, with ao being the Bohr radius. For electrons in a single band, rs = Ec/ E f while for the (100) surface of silicon rs = Ec/2E p , due to the two-fold valley degeneracy. At very high densities (rs <£ 1) a 2D system approaches the paramagnetic limit of a non-interacting degenerate gas characterized by the Pauli susceptibility, xo • As the density is reduced, the growing ferromagnetic correlations lead to substantial enhancement of the spin susceptibility, The system is predicted to remain paramagnetic up to rs « 20, where numerical calculations [1] find a quantum phase transition to a ferromagnetic liquid phase [2]. At lower density, rs & 37 [3], the Coulomb correlations are predicted to lead to a second phase transition to an anti-ferromagnetic quantum Wigner crystal. The energy balance between the ferro and paramagnetic states is very subtle, therefore the density window where ferromagnetism can take place is small [1].
