Orbital effects of in-plane magnetic fields probed by mesoscopic conductance fluctuations

We use the high sensitivity to magnetic flux of mesoscopic conductance fluctuations in large quantum dots to investigate changes in the two-dimensional electron dispersion caused by an in-plane magnetic field. In particular, changes in effective mass and the breaking of momentum reversal symmetry in the electron dispersion are extracted quantitatively from correlations of conductance fluctuations. New theory is presented, and good agreement between theory and experiment is found.