Past exam of the advanced Quantum Condensed Matter Physics course of the University of Cambridge / 2015 / Paper 1 / 1 / c / Solution

At fixed total density, the unpolarized and fully polarized candidate energies arePolarization increases the kinetic energy because one spin species must occupy a larger Fermi sphere, but gains negative exchange energy. The fully polarized candidate wins this endpoint comparison ifUsing the defined $r_s$ givesThus the specified two-state comparison indeed predicts a polarized state below the unpolarized state's energy for $r_s>1.175$.

The endpoint and continuous polarization thresholds of a contact electron gas are different. To check the actual onset within the same uniform Hartree-Fock model, allow $P=(n_{\uparrow }-n_{\downarrow })/n$ to vary continuously. In units $2A(n/2{)}^{5/3}$,The unpolarized state loses local stability already at $r_s=10/9\simeq 1.111$. Full polarization becomes the minimizing endpoint only when $f^{\prime }(1)\le 0$, or $r_s\ge (5/6)2^{2/3}\simeq 1.323$. Between those values the optimum is partly polarized. Consequently $1.175$ is the requested endpoint crossing, not the exact onset of spontaneous polarization after all spin populations are allowed.