Stability of the smectic quantum Hall state:: A quantitative study

We present an effective elastic theory which quantitatively describes the stripe phase of the two-dimensional electron gas in high Landau levels (N greater than or equal to 2). The dynamical matrix is obtained with remarkably high precision using the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approximation. A renormalization group analysis shows that at T = 0, as the partial filling factor Delta nu = nu - [nu] moves away from 1/2, the anisotropic conducting state may undergo quantum phase transitions: stripes may get pinned along their conducting direction by disorder, or may lock into one another to form a crystal. The transitions should be reflected in the temperature dependence of the dissipative conductivity.