A VARIATIONAL GROUND-STATE FOR THE V=2 3 FRACTIONAL QUANTUM HALL REGIME/

A variational nu = 2/3 state, which unifies the sharp edge picture of MacDonald with the soft edge picture of Chang and of Beenakker is pres ented and studied in detail. Using an exact relation between correlati on functions of this state and those of the Laughlin nu = 1/3 wavefunc tion, the correlation functions of the nu = 2/3 state are determined v ia a classical Monte Carlo calculation, for systems up to 50 electrons . It is found that as a function of the slope of the confining potenti al there is a sharp transition of the ground state from one descriptio n to the other. This transition should be observable in tunneling expe riments through quantum dots.