Symmetry-breaking Fermi surface deformations from central interactions in two dimensions

Abstract

We present a mean-field theory of the Pomeranchuk instability in two dimensions, starting from a generic central interaction potential described in terms of a few microscopic parameters. For a significant range of parameters, the instability is found to be pre-empted by a first-order quantum phase transition. We provide the ground-state phase diagram in terms of our generic parameters. © 2008 The American Physical Society.