  We demonstrate here that the dipole-allowed optical absorption spectrum of a
parabolic quantum dot subjected to an external magnetic field reflects the
inter-electron interaction effects when the spin-orbit interaction is also
taken into account. We have investigated the energy spectra and the
dipole-allowed transition energies for up to four interacting electrons
parabolically confined, and have uncovered several novel features in those
spectra that are solely due to the SO interaction.
