Eur. Phys. J. D 28, 373-380 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2003-00320-5

Accuracy of the Hartree-Fock method for Wigner molecules at high magnetic fields

¹ Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Techniques, AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków, Poland
² Departement Natuurkunde, Universiteit Antwerpen (UIA), 2610 Antwerpen, Belgium

Corresponding author: ^a bszafran@agh.edu.pl

Received: 18 August 2003
Revised: 24 October 2003
Published online: 6 January 2004

Abstract

Few-electron systems confined in two-dimensional parabolic quantum dots at high magnetic fields are studied by the Hartree-Fock (HF) and exact diagonalization methods. A generalized multicenter Gaussian basis is proposed in the HF method. A comparison of the HF and exact results allows us to discuss the relevance of the symmetry of the charge density distribution for the accuracy of the HF method. It is shown that the energy estimates obtained with the broken-symmetry HF wave functions become exact in the infinite magnetic-field limit. In this limit the charge density of the broken-symmetry solution can be identified with the classical charge distribution.