Quantum criticality and the metal-insulator transition in 2D: a critical test

Abstract

Using recent insights obtained in heavy fermion physics on the thermodynamic singularity structure associated with quantum phase transitions, we present here an experimental strategy to establish if the zero-temperature transition in the disordered two dimensional gas is a real quantum phase transition. We derive a overcomplete set of scaling laws relating the density and temperature dependence of the chemical potential and the effective mass, which are in principle verifyable by experiment.