Compressibility, capacitance, and ground-state energy fluctuations in a weakly interacting quantum dot

Abstract

We study the effect of electron-electron (e-e) interactions on compressibility, capacitance, and inverse compressibility of electrons in a quantum dot or a small metallic grain. The calculation is performed in the random-phase approximation. As expected, the ensemble-averaged compressibility and capacitance decreases as a function of the interaction strength, while the mean inverse compressibility increases. Fluctuations of the compressibility are found to be strongly suppressed by the e-e interactions. Fluctuations of the capacitance and inverse compressibility also turn out to be much smaller than their averages. The analytical calculations are compared with the results of a numerical calculation for the inverse compressibility of a disordered tight-binding model. Excellent agreement for weak-interaction values is found. Implications for the interpretation of current experimental data are discussed.