A Mechanism for Quantum Melting in Two Dimensions

We investigate a mechanism of generation of dislocations for the melting of a quantum solid in two dimensions at zero temperature. For the Wigner transition of an electron gas in a magnetic field, the Lindeman ratio is found to be 0.29 at low fields and 0.26 at high fields. In the zero field limit, r s = 35 at the transition, in agreement with recent quantum Monte Carlo simulations results of 37 ± 5. In the high field limit we found that the transition filling factor is 0.19, in good agreement with the estimate 0.2 of recent experiments by Andrei et al. , Willett et al. and Stormer et al.