Supershell structure of magnetic susceptibility

Abstract

The magnetic susceptibility of electrons confined to a spherical cavity or a circular billiard shows slow oscillations as a function of the number of electrons, which are a manifestation of the supershell structure found in the free energy of metal clusters. The relationship of the oscillations of the two different quantities is analyzed by means of semiclassical calculations, which are in quantitative agreement with quantal results. The oscillations should be observable for ensembles of circular ballistic quantum dots and metal clusters.