GROUND-STATE PROPERTIES OF THE 2-DIMENSIONAL BOSE COULOMB LIQUID

We present results of a ground-state study, via the diffusion Monte Carlo method, of a two-dimensional charged boson liquid. We observe three distinct behaviors in this system. At the lowest densities a close-packed Wigner crystal forms. At r(s) almost-equal-to 12 the crystal melts into a noncondensed liquid exhibiting algebraic off-diagonal long-range order; the single-particle density matrix decays as r(-r(s)/4). Above a threshold density (r(s) < 8), the long-wavelength momentum distribution diverges as k(r(s)-8)/4, although no condensate forms.