SUBIR SACHDEV

Department of Physics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208120, New Haven, CT 06520-8120, USA

Abstract.

We discuss the possibility of spin-glass order in the vicinity of the unexpected metallic state of the two-dimensional electron gas in zero applied magnetic field. An average ferromagnetic moment may also be present, and the spin-glass order then resides in the plane orthogonal to the ferromagnetic moment. We argue that a quantum transition involving the destruction of the spin-glass order in an applied in-plane magnetic field offers a natural explanation of some features of recent magnetoconductance measurements. We present a quantum field theory for such a transition and compute its mean field properties.

Keywords:  Spin glasses; quantum phase transition; ferromagnetism; electron gas

Pacs Nos.  73.40.-c; 71.30.+h; 75.10.Jm; 75.10.Nr