Fermi contour ($E_n(\mathbf{k})=E_F$)

For a two-dimensional energy band, a Fermi contour is the set of wavevectors at the Fermi energy. It is the two-dimensional counterpart of a Fermi surface. At a regular value it consists locally of curves; at a band extremum or a crossing it can acquire isolated points or intersecting branches. At zero temperature, each band's occupied region satisfies $E_n(\mathbf{k})<E_F$, so the contours must be labelled by band when determining occupations. The Fermi contours of an isotropic Rashba band illustrate why two contours need not belong to two different bands.

The circular zero-temperature occupation boundary of an isotropic two-dimensional electron gas. The occupied disk has area $\pi k_F^2$; converting its area to particle number requires the reciprocal-space state density and a separately specified spin degeneracy.

Translating a Fermi circle of radius $p_F$ by $p_0\hat{\mathbf{x}}$ preserves its area. For $p_0<p_F$, its radial displacement from the original centre is the displayed expression. Its Taylor expansion is $\nu =p_0\cos \theta -p_0^2{\sin }^2\theta /(2p_F)+O(p_0^4/p_F^3)$. The second-order term cancels the apparent area increase from the first-order shape: ${\int }_0^{2\pi }(p_F\nu +{\nu }^2/2)d\theta =0$. This distinction matters when converting a grand-potential variation into a fixed-particle number energy change.