Wigner molecules in quantum dots - art. no. 113313

We perform unrestricted Hartree-Fock (HF) calculations for electrons in a p arabolic quantum dot at zero magnetic field. The crossover from Fermi liqui d to Wigner molecule behavior is studied for up to eight electrons and vari ous spin components S-z. We compare the results with numerically exact path -integral Monte Carlo simulations and earlier HF studies. Even in the stron gly correlated regime the symmetry-breaking HF solutions provide accurate e stimates for the energies and describe the one-particle densities qualitati vely. However, the HF approximation favors the formation of a Wigner molecu le and produces azimuthal modulations of the density far even numbers of el ectrons in one spatial shell.