The Ground State of a Two-Dimensional Electron Liquid in a Weak Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This paper investigates the ground state of a two-dimensional electron liquid in a weak magnetic field, revealing domain formation and a magnetic field-dependent pseudogap in the density of states.

Contribution

It demonstrates the formation of alternating filling factor domains and characterizes the pseudogap behavior in the density of states for large Landau level filling.

Findings

Electrons form domains with filling factors 0 and 1 alternating spatially.

The domain period is on the order of the cyclotron radius.

The density of states exhibits a pseudogap linearly dependent on magnetic field.

Abstract

We study the ground state of a clean two-dimensional electron liquid in a weak magnetic field where $N \gg 1$ lower Landau levels are completely filled and the upper level is partially filled. It is shown that the electrons at the upper Landau level form domains with filling factor equal to one and zero. The domains alternate with a spatial period of the order of the cyclotron radius, which is much larger than the interparticle distance at the upper Landau level. The one-particle density of states, which can be probed by tunneling experiments, is shown to have a pseudogap linearly dependent on the magnetic field in the limit of large $N$.