A Gas-Liquid Type Transition of Semimetals in Strong Magnetic Field

Abstract

A mean field theoretical mode is presented to show that a first order transition from semimetallic to semiconducting distributions of carriers can result from the Landau quantization by a strong magnetic field applied to a semimetal. The possibility of the excitonic transition is ignored by assuming that intraband (electron-electron and hole-hole) exchanges dominate the interband exchange. The phase diagram including critical point and limits of supercooling and superheating is obtained. The enhancement of the sound attenuation by the critical fluctuation is also discussed.