3.II.34D

Statistical Physics
Part II, 2005

A free spinless particle moving in two dimensions is confined to a square box of side LL. By imposing periodic boundary conditions show that the number of states in the energy range ϵϵ+dϵ\epsilon \rightarrow \epsilon+d \epsilon is g(ϵ)dϵg(\epsilon) d \epsilon, where

g(ϵ)=mL22π2g(\epsilon)=\frac{m L^{2}}{2 \pi \hbar^{2}}

If, instead, the particle is an electron with magnetic moment μ\mu moving in a constant external magnetic field HH, show that

g(ϵ)={mL22π2,μH<ϵ<μHmL2π2,μH<ϵg(\epsilon)= \begin{cases}\frac{m L^{2}}{2 \pi \hbar^{2}}, & -\mu H<\epsilon<\mu H \\ \frac{m L^{2}}{\pi \hbar^{2}}, & \mu H<\epsilon\end{cases}

Let there be NN electrons in the box. Explain briefly how to construct the ground state of the system. Let ϵ\epsilon be the Fermi energy. Show that when ϵ>μH\epsilon>\mu H

N=mL2π2ϵ.N=\frac{m L^{2}}{\pi \hbar^{2}} \epsilon .

Show also that the magnetic moment MM of the system in its ground state is given by

M=μ2mL2π2HM=\frac{\mu^{2} m L^{2}}{\pi \hbar^{2}} H

and that the ground state energy is

12π2mL2N212MH\frac{1}{2} \frac{\pi \hbar^{2}}{m L^{2}} N^{2}-\frac{1}{2} M H