Power-law dependence of the angular momentum transition fields in few-electron quantum dots

We show that the critical magnetic fields at which a few-electron quantum dot undergoes transitions between successive values of its angular momentum (M) for large M values follow a very simple power-law dependence on the effective interelectron interaction strength. We obtain this power law analytically from a quasiclassical treatment and demonstrate its nearly universal validity by comparison with the results of exact diagonalization.