Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 380
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-40495-2

Regular Article

Thermodynamic properties of an electron gas on a curved surface

¹ Departamento de FísicaUniversidade Federal do Ceará, Caixa Postal 6030, Campus do Pici, 60455-900 Fortaleza Ceará Brazil
² Departamento de Física, Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte, 59610-210 Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

^a e-mail: nalmeida@fisica.ufc.br

Received: 15 May 2013
Published online: 11 September 2013

Abstract

We report a study on thermodynamic properties of a two-dimensional electron gas confined in a sector of a circular cylinder immersed in a dc magnetic field perpendicular to its axis. This field configuration produces on the electrons in the curved surface, effects similar to a non-homogeneous magnetic field on a flat system. We study these effects by calculating the energy spectra for different curvature radius and symmetries of the magnetic field with respect to the surface. The analysis of the density of states, chemical potential and specific heat of these systems helps to understand the correlation between the externally controlled symmetry and their physical properties.