Rashba effect and magnetic field in quantum wires

We investigate the influence of a perpendicular magnetic field on the spectral and spin properties of a ballistic quasi-one-dimensional electron system with Rashba effect. The magnetic field strongly alters the spin-orbit induced modification to the subband structure when the magnetic length becomes comparable to the lateral confinement. A new subband-dependent energy splitting at k=0 is found which can be much larger than the Zeeman splitting. This is due to the breaking of a combined spin orbital-parity symmetry.