Pauli principle and chaos in a magnetized disk

Abstract

We present results of a detailed quantum mechanical study of a gas of $N$ noninteracting electrons confined to a circular boundary and subject to homogeneous dc plus ac magnetic fields $(B=B_{dc}+B_{ac}f(t)$, with $f(t+2π/ω_0)=f(t)$). We earlier found a one-particle {\it classical} phase diagram of the (scaled) Larmor frequency $\tildeω_c=omega_c/ω_0$ {\rm vs} $ε=B_{ac}/B_{dc}$ that separates regular from chaotic regimes. We also showed that the quantum spectrum statistics changed from Poisson to Gaussian orthogonal ensembles in the transition from classically integrable to chaotic dynamics. Here we find that, as a function of $N$ and $(ε,\tildeω_c)$, there are clear quantum signatures in the magnetic response, when going from the single-particle classically regular to chaotic regimes. In the quasi-integrable regime the magnetization non-monotonically oscillates between diamagnetic and paramagnetic as a function of $N$. We quantitatively understand this behavior from a perturbation theory analysis. In the chaotic regime, however, we find that the magnetization oscillates as a function of $N$ but it is {\it always} diamagnetic. Equivalent results are also presented for the orbital currents. We also find that the time-averaged energy grows like $N^2$ in the quasi-integrable regime but changes to a linear $N$ dependence in the chaotic regime. In contrast, the results with Bose statistics are akin to the single-particle case and thus different from the fermionic case. We also give an estimate of possible experimental parameters were our results may be seen in semiconductor quantum dot billiards.