The role of spin in the conductance through interacting disordered dots

Recent experiments on the conductance through semiconducting quantum dots w eakly coupled to external leads provide information about the role of the e lectrons spin in determining the ground-state properties of the dot. It tur ns out that contrary to naive expectations the electrons in the dot are in a correlated state due to their low density, in which both disorder and ele ctron-electron interactions play an important role. The total spin of the e lectrons seems to be polarized which manifests itself in the properties of the conductance through the dot. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.