Finite electron crystallites in strong magnetic fields: Precursors of a supersolid?

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that finite electron crystallites in high magnetic fields exhibit supersolid behavior, combining solid and superfluid properties, and serve as precursors to supersolid crystals in quantum dots.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive description of electron crystallites as supersolids using exact diagonalization, analytic wave functions, and a new energy formula applicable to any electron number.

Findings

Crystallites rotate in their ground state with nonclassical inertia

They exhibit simultaneous solid and superfluid properties

The study provides a new analytic energy expression for arbitrary electron numbers

Abstract

We show that a supersolid phase, exhibiting simultaneously solid and superfluid behavior, properly describes the finite electron crystallites that form in two-dimensional quantum dots under high magnetic fields. These crystallites rotate already in their ground state and exhibit a nonclassical rotational inertia. They are precursors to a supersolid crystal in the lowest Landau level. We use exact numerical diagonalization, calculations employing analytic many-body wave functions, and a newly derived analytic expression for the total energies that permits calculations for arbitrary number of electrons.