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arXiv:0902.0765 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Matrix effective theories of the fractional quantum Hall effect

Andrea Cappelli A, Ivan Dario Jimenez Rodriguez

Published Jul 14, 2009• 3 citations
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Abstract

The present understanding of nonperturbative ground states in the fractional quantum Hall effect is based on effective theories of the Jain ‘composite fermion’ excitations. We review the approach based on matrix variables, i.e. D0 branes, originally introduced by Susskind and Polychronakos. We show that the Maxwell–Chern–Simons matrix gauge theory provides a matrix generalization of the quantum Hall effect, where the composite-fermion construction naturally follows from gauge invariance. The matrix ground states obtained by suitable projections of higher Landau levels are found to be in one-to-one correspondence with the Laughlin and Jain hierarchical states. The matrix theory possesses a physical limit for commuting matrices that could be reachable while staying in the same phase.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8113/42/30/304006

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The present understanding of nonperturbative ground states in the fractional quantum Hall effect is based on effective theories of the Jain ‘composite fermion’ excitations. We review the approach based on matrix variables, i.e. D0 branes, originally introduced by Susskind and Polychronakos. We show that the Maxwell–Chern–Simons matrix gauge theory provides a matrix generalization of the quantum Hall effect, where the composite-fermion construction naturally follows from gauge invariance. The matrix ground states obtained by suitable projections of higher Landau levels are found to be in one-to-one correspondence with the Laughlin and Jain hierarchical states. The matrix theory possesses a physical limit for commuting matrices that could be reachable while staying in the same phase.
The composite fermion (CF) theory gives both a phenomenological description for many fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states, as well as a microscopic construction for large scale numerical calculation of these topological phases. The fundamental postulate of mapping FQH states of electrons to integer quantum Hall (IQH) states of CFs, however, was not formally established. The Landau level (LL) projection needed for the microscopic calculations is in some sense uncontrolled and unpredictable. We rigorously derive the unitary relationship between electrons and the CFs, showing the latter naturally emerge from special interactions within a single LL, without resorting to any projection by hand. In this framework, all FQH states topologically equivalent to those described by the conventional CF theory (e.g., the Jain series) have exact model Hamiltonians that can be explicitly derived, and we can easily generalize to FQH states from interacting CFs. Our derivations reveal fundamental connections between the CF theory and the pseudopotential/Jack polynomial constructions, and argue that all Abelian CF states are physically equivalent to the IQH states, while a plethora of non-Abelian CF states can be systematically constructed and classified. We also discuss about implications to experiments and effective field theory descriptions based on the descriptions with CFs as elementary particles.
Master's thesis in Theoretical Physics. The official university title is "Fractional Quantum Hall Effect: Current State and Perspectives"; this record uses the author's preferred, more descriptive title. This thesis develops a unified description of the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) and topological order through three complementary frameworks: microscopic trial many-body wavefunctions, the algebraic theory of anyons and unitary modular tensor categories, and Chern-Simons effective field theory. The first part covers the physical foundations—Landau quantization, the TKNN invariant, Laughlin's wavefunctions, the hierarchy and composite fermion theories, and some non-Abelian states like the Moore-Read Pfaffian state. The second part develops the algebraic theory of anyons, from the braid group to fusion rules, quantum dimensions, topological spins, and the F- and R-matrices that characterize a unitary modular tensor category. The third part constructs the Chern-Simons effective field theory, deriving fractional charge, statistics, and ground-state degeneracy, unifying Abelian states via the K-matrix formalism, and then generalizing to non-Abelian states through 𝑈(1)ₘ × 𝑆𝑈(𝑁)ₖ Chern-Simons theory. The central result is that Chern–Simons theory provides a field-theoretic realization of the topological order introduced microscopically and algebraically in the earlier chapters, closing the circle between the three descriptions and providing a unified framework for the FQHE and topological order and anyon's physics.
A recently developed hierarchy theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) is reviewed in this article. We use a many quasiparticle (QP) wave function to obtain the effective partition function of a FQHE system in the path-integral representation, which has been shown to be formally equivalent to an anyon system confined to the lowest Landau level. However the two systems are different in the dimension of the Hilbert space, which implies that the standard hierarchy theory is invalid beyond second hierarchical states. The only way to overcome the difficulty is to place anyons in higher Landau levels. By making a mean-field approximation to the statistical gauge field, the QPs are converted to bosons and a constraint boson system is derived. We find a new type of condensate of the bosonic QPs, which results in a new type of incompressible states of the electrons. These states which involve only two hierarchies should have higher stability over others. That explains why some sequences of filling fractions occur prominently in experiment. Finally, we show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the new hierarchy theory and the composite fermion theory proposed by Jain.
Quantum Hall systems offer the most familiar setting where strong interparticle interactions combine with the topology of single-particle states to yield novel phenomena. Despite our mature understanding of these systems, an open challenge has been to develop a microscopic theory capturing both their universal and nonuniversal properties, when the Hamiltonian is restricted to the noncommutative space of the lowest Landau level. Here we develop such a theory for the Jain sequence of bosonic fractional quantum Hall states at fillings $\ensuremath{\nu}=\frac{p}{p+1}$. Building on a lowest Landau level description of a parent composite Fermi liquid at $\ensuremath{\nu}=1$, we describe how to dope the system to reach the Jain states. Upon doping, the composite fermions fill noncommutative generalizations of Landau levels, and the Jain states correspond to integer composite fermion filling. Using this approach, we obtain an approximate expression for the bosonic Jain sequence gaps with no reference to any long-wavelength approximation. Furthermore, we show that the universal properties, such as Hall conductivity, are encoded in an effective noncommutative Chern-Simons theory, which is obtained on integrating out the composite fermions. This theory has the same topological content as the familiar Abelian Chern-Simons theory on commutative space.
The quantum Hall effect is one of the most challenging problems in condensed matter physics in which many rare physical phenomena like fractional charges and generally the fractional statistics are involved. In the integer quantum Hall effect the role of the disorder is more than others. The important point in describing these systems is that their bulk states should be gapful and in this sense the system should be incompressible. For describing the electron condensates in an arbitrary filling fraction with the odd denominator one needs the topological U(1) Chern-Simons effective field theory. Our motivation for using these field theories is the emergence of quantized conductivity. This effective field theory also has the ability of constructing the hierarchical fractional condensates with various filling factors. The excitations of these theories have fractional statistics which are investigated in this review. The non-Abelian Chern-Simons for quantum Hall systems will be also investigated. The interesting point is that the edge states of these systems are gapless and their excitations are equipped with the Kac-Moody algebra. The connection to the conformal field theories can be established using this point. The investigation of this correspondence is one of the aims of the present thesis. The connection to the logarithmic conformal field theories (e.g. for the Haldane-Rezaei wave function) is also reported in some works which will be addressed in this thesis.