The ground state of the "frozen" electron phase in two-dimensional narrow-band conductors with a long-range interelectron repulsion. Stripe formationand effective lowering of dimension

In narrow-band conductors a weakly screened Coulomb interelectron repulsion can supress narrow-band electrons' hopping, resulting in formation of a "f rozen" electron phase which differs principally from any known macroscopic self-localized electron state including the Wigner crystal. In a zero-band- width limit the "frozen" electron phase is a classical lattice system with a long-range interparticle repulsion. The ground state of such systems has been considered in the case of two dimensions for an isotropic pair potenti al of the mutual particle repulsion. It has been shown that particle orderi ng into stripes and effective lowering of dimension resides universally in the ground state for any physically reasonable pair potential and for any g eometry of the conductor lattice. On the basis of this fact a rigorous gene ral procedure for describing the ground state fully has been formulated. Ar guments have been adduced that charge ordering into stripes in high-T-c sup erconductors testifies to the presence of a "frozen" electron phase in thes e systems. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics.