  Recent claims of an experimental demonstration of spontaneous spin
polarisation in dilute electron gases \cite{young99} revived long standing
theoretical discussions \cite{ceper99,bloch}. In two dimensions, the
stabilisation of a ferromagnetic fluid might be hindered by the occurrence of
the metal-insulator transition at low densities \cite{abra79}. To circumvent
localisation in the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) we investigated the low
populated second electron subband, where the disorder potential is mainly
screened by the high density of the first subband. This letter reports on the
breakdown of the spin symmetry in a 2DEG, revealed by the abrupt enhancement of
the exchange and correlation terms of the Coulomb interaction, as determined
from the energies of the collective charge and spin excitations. Inelastic
light scattering experiments and calculations within the time-dependent local
spin-density approximation give strong evidence for the existence of a
ferromagnetic ground state in the diluted regime.
