We have studied the relevance of spin-orbit coupling to the chemical potential of semiconductor dots submitted to a perpendicularly applied magnetic field $B$. The energy of the ground state of the dot is calculated within Hartree-Fock (HF), local spin-density functional theory (LSDA) and fixed phase quantum Monte Carlo (FP-DMC) and the interplay between spin-orbit and exchange-correlation interactions is carefully investigated. The results are compared with the experimental curves obtained by means of conductance spectroscopy.

• Received 7 November 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.70.125302