INSTABILITY IN THE QUANTUM HELICON DISPERSION RELATION.
Abstract
When a quantum gas in a magnetic field is treated with all electromagnetic interactions, at very low temperatures it becomes unstable against transverse excitations propagating in the direction of the field. This instability appears as a root of the quantum helicon dispersion relation in the upper half frequency plane. It is shown that the instability is due to the failure of the conventional Hartree ground state (in which the one electron states are the ordinary Landau ones) to minimize the ground state energy, when magnetic currentcurrent interactions are retained along with the Coulomb interactions. A state was found giving a lower energy than the conventional one, in which transverse volume currents exist perpendicular to the magnetic field. Because, however, the magnetic coupling is very weak, the reduction in energy is unobservably small at any realistic field strengths or electronic densities. It is concluded that the instability does not lead to any measurable effects, and that for all practical purposes the conventional thermal equilibrium state can be regarded as stable. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 17, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0602038
Entities
People
- N. David Mermin
- V. Celli
Organizations
- University of California, San Diego