The low density phases of the electron gas

We have generalized the quantum Monte Carlo method for bosons to exactly simulate the ground state of many-fermion systems. We have carried out such simulations on the one component plasma with up to 250 electrons and determined the equation of state in three phases: the normal (unpolarized) Fermi liquid, the polarized Fermi liquid and the Wigner crystal. Two phase transitions are seen: from the normal liquid to the polarized at rsub(s)=75, and from the polarized liquid to the Wigner crystal at rsub(s)=100 where rsub(s) is the mean interparticle spacing in Bohr radii