Signatures of an intermediate 2d Coulomb phase at low temperatures

Abstract

The study of the ground state of spinless fermions in 2d disordered clusters (Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 83}, 1826 (1999)) has suggested the existence of a new quantum phase for intermediate Coulomb energy to kinetic energy ratios $r_s$. Exact diagonalization of the same small clusters show that its low energy excitations (quantum ergodicity above a few ``hexatic'' excitations characterized by oriented currents) significantly differ from those occuring in the Fermi glass (weak $r_s$) and in the pinned Wigner crystal (large $r_s$). The ``hexatic'' excitations vanish for temperatures of order of the Fermi temperature.