Conductance fluctuations in the Coulomb blockade regime

Recent experiments on the conductance through semiconducting quantum dots w eakly coupled to external leads enable us to study the ground state propert ies of these dots. The spacings between the resonant peaks as well as their heights indicate that the electrons in the dot are in a correlated state d ue to their low density, in which both disorder and electron-electron inter actions determine the properties of the electron system. Numerical treatmen ts of model Hamiltonians were successful in reproducing many of the experim entally observed features of the conductance and reveal important clues on the relevant physics behind these features. These studies also indicate tha t the ground state is spin polarized, a prediction which could be experimen tally verified.