We present a theory of the metal-insulator transition in a disordered twodimensional electron gas. A quantum critical point, separating the metallic phase which is stabilized by electronic interactions, from the insulating phase where disorder prevails over the electronic interactions, has been identified.The existence of the quantum critical point leads to a divergence in the density of states of the underlying collective modes at the transition, causing the thermodynamic properties to behave critically as the transition is approached.We show that the interplay of electron-electron interactions and disorder can explain the observed transport properties and the anomalous enhancement of the spin susceptibility near the metal-insulator transition.

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We propose to use the lateral interface between two regions with different strengths of the spin-orbit interaction(s) to spin polarize the electrons in gated two-dimensional semiconductor heterostructures. For a beam with a nonzero angle of incidence, the transmitted electrons will split into two spin polarization components propagating at different angles. We analyze the refraction at such an interface and outline the basic schemes for filtration and control of the electron spin.

Oreg and Finkel'stein Reply: In the preceding Comment [1] Fabrizio and Gogolin (FG) dispute our result of the enhancement of the tunneling density of states (DOS) in a Tomonaga-Luttinger (TL) liquid at the location of a backward scattering defect [2]. They state that (i) the anticommutativity of the fermion operators of the left and right moving electrons was not considered properly; and that (ii) the tunneling DOS for this prob

We show that the strong Nernst signal observed recently in amorphous superconducting films far above the critical temperature is caused by the fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter. We demonstrate a striking agreement between our theoretical calculations and the experimental data at various temperatures and magnetic fields. Besides, the Nernst effect is interesting not in the context of superconductivity only. We discuss some subtle issues in the theoretical study of thermal phenomena that we have encountered while calculating the Nernst coefficient. In particular, we explain how the Nernst theorem (the third law of thermodynamics) imposes a strict constraint on the magnitude of the Nernst effect.