Spin of the ground quantum state of electrons from first principles in the representation of Feynman path integrals

Abstract

A method for calculating the spin of the ground quantum state of nonrelativistic electrons and distance between energy levels of quantum states differing in the spin magnitude from first principles is proposed. The approach developed is free from the one-electron approximation and applicable in multielectron systems with allowance for all spatial correlations. The possibilities of the method are demonstrated by the example of calculating the energy gap between spin states in model ellipsoidal quantum dots with a harmonic confining field. The results of computations by the Monte Carlo method point to high sensitivity of the energy gap to the break of spherical symmetry of the quantum dot. For three electrons, the phenomenon of inversion has been revealed for levels corresponding to high and low values of the spin. The calculations demonstrate the practical possibility to obtain spin states with arbitrarily close energies by varying the shape of the quantum dot, which is a key condition for development prospects in technologies of storage systems based on spin qubits.