  We present a numerical study of magnetic phases of the 2D electron gas near
freezing. The calculations are performed by diffusion Monte Carlo in the fixed
node approximation. At variance with the 3D case we find no evidence for the
stability of a partially polarized phase. With plane wave nodes in the trial
function, the polarization transition takes place at Rs=20, whereas the best
available estimates locate Wigner crystallization around Rs=35. Using an
improved nodal structure, featuring optimized backflow correlations, we confirm
the existence of a stability range for the polarized phase, although somewhat
shrunk, at densities achievable nowadays in 2 dimensional hole gases in
semiconductor heterostructures . The spin susceptibility of the unpolarized
phase at the magnetic transition is approximately 30 times the Pauli
susceptibility.
