Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:0908.0747 · Physical Review B

Change in the character of quasiparticles without gap collapse in a model of fractional quantum Hall effect

Csaba Tőke, Jainendra K. Jain

Published Nov 4, 2009• 21 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

It is commonly assumed in the studies of the fractional quantum Hall effect that the physics of a fractional quantum Hall state, in particular the character of its excitations, is invariant under a continuous deformation of the Hamiltonian during which the gap does not close. We show in this article that, at least for finite systems, as the interaction is changed from a model three body interaction to Coulomb, the ground state at filling factor $\ensuremath{\nu}=2/5$ evolves continuously from the so-called Gaffnian wave function to the composite fermion wave function, but the quasiholes alter their character in a nonperturbative manner. This is attributed to the fact that the Coulomb interaction opens a gap in the Gaffnian quasihole sector, pushing many of the states to very high energies. Interestingly, the states below the gap are found to have a one-to-one correspondence with the composite fermion theory, suggesting that the Gaffnian model contains composite fermions, and that the Gaffnian quasiholes are unstable to the formation of composite fermions when a two-body interaction term is switched on. General implications of this study are discussed.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.80.205301

Related papers

Gaffnian and Haffnian: Physical relevance of nonunitary conformal field theory for the incompressible fractional quantum Hall effect

Bo Yang

We motivate a close look on the usefulness of the Gaffnian and Haffnian quasihole manifold (null spaces of the respective model Hamiltonians) for well-known gapped fractional quantum Hall phases. The conformal invariance of these subspaces is derived explicitly from microscopic many-body states. The resultant conformal field theory (CFT) description leads to an intriguing emergent primary field with $h=2,\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}c=0$, and we argue the quasihole manifolds are quantum mechanically well defined and well behaved. Focusing on the incompressible phases at $\ensuremath{\nu}=\frac{1}{3}$ and $\frac{2}{5}$, we show the low-lying excitations of the Laughlin phase are quantum fluids of Gaffnian and Haffnian quasiholes, and give a microscopic argument showing that the Haffnian model Hamiltonian is gapless against Laughlin quasielectrons. We discuss the thermal Hall conductance and shot-noise measurements at $\ensuremath{\nu}=\frac{2}{5}$, and argue that the experimental observations can be understood from the dynamics within the Gaffnian quasihole manifold. A number of detailed predictions on these experimental measurements are proposed, and we discuss their relationships to the conventional CFT arguments and the composite fermion descriptions.

arXiv:2010.13799•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Mar 2, 2021•14 citations

From the Gaffnian critical point to the incompressible 2/5 quantum Hall state

Sahana Das, Sudipto Das, Sutirtha Mukherjee +1 more

Despite the high overlap with the exact Coulomb ground state, the so-called Gaffnian state fails to describe the incompressibility at the 2/5 quantum Hall filling factor and consequently it was conjectured to be a quantum critical state. To achieve a gapped state starting from the Gaffnian wave function, which we interpret as the interflavor pairing of the composite fermions, we propose a minimally ``modified Gaffnian'' wave function keeping the pairing intact. We find that a suitable hybridization of these two wave functions is an excellent description of the 2/5 quantum Hall state. It has a very high overlap with the exact Coulomb state and their entanglement spectra match up to reasonably higher levels. Interestingly, this hybridized wave function being a representative of a paired state suggests an exotic possibility of non-Abelian quasiparticle excitations at 2/5 filling.

arXiv:2111.01076•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Jan 31, 2022•0 citations

Effective Abelian theory from a non-Abelian topological order in the ν=2/5 fractional quantum Hall effect

Bo Yang, Ying-Hai Wu, Zlatko Papić

Topological phases of matter are distinguished by topological invariants, such as Chern numbers and topological spins, that quantize their response to electromagnetic currents and changes of ambient geometry. Intriguingly, in the $\ensuremath{\nu}=2/5$ fractional quantum Hall effect, prominent theoretical approaches---the composite fermion theory and conformal field theory---have constructed two distinct states, the Jain composite fermion (CF) state and the Gaffnian state, for which many of the topological indices coincide and even the microscopic ground-state wave functions have high overlap with each other in system sizes accessible to numerics. At the same time, some aspects of these states are expected to be very different; e.g., their elementary excitations should have either Abelian (CF) or non-Abelian (Gaffnian) statistics. In this paper we investigate the close relationship between these two states by considering not only their ground states, but also the low-energy charged excitations. We show that the low-energy physics of both phases is spanned by the same type of quasielectrons of the neighboring Laughlin phase. The main difference between the two states arises due to an implicit assumption of short-range interaction in the CF approach, which causes a large splitting of the variational energies of the Gaffnian excitations. We thus propose that the Jain phase emerges as an effective Abelian low-energy description of the Gaffnian phase when the Hamiltonian is dominated by two-body interactions of sufficiently short range.

arXiv:1907.12572•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Dec 19, 2019•16 citations

Tripartite composite fermion states

G. J. Sreejith, Ying-Hai Wu, Arkadiusz Wójs +1 more

The Read-Rezayi wave function is one of the candidates for the fractional quantum Hall effect at filling fraction $\ensuremath{\nu}=2+⅗$, and thereby also its hole conjugate at $2+⅖$. We study a general class of tripartite composite fermion wave functions, which reduce to the Rezayi-Read ground state and quasiholes for appropriate quantum numbers, but also allow a construction of wave functions for quasiparticles and neutral excitations by analogy to the standard composite fermion theory. We present numerical evidence in finite systems that these trial wave functions capture well the low energy physics of a four-body model interaction. We also compare the tripartite composite fermion wave functions with the exact Coulomb eigenstates at $2+⅗$, and find reasonably good agreement. The ground state as well as several excited states of the four-body interaction are seen to evolve adiabatically into the corresponding Coulomb states for $N=15$ particles. These results support the plausibility of the Read-Rezayi proposal for the $2+⅖$ and $2+⅗$ fractional quantum Hall effect. However, certain other proposals also remain viable, and further study of excitations and edge states will be necessary for a decisive establishment of the physical mechanism of these fractional quantum Hall states.

arXiv:1301.6565•Physical Review B•Jun 24, 2013•31 citations

Generalization of Laughlin’s theory for the fractional quantum Hall effect

Sudhansu S. Mandal

Motivated by the structure of the quasiparticle wavefunction in the composite fermion (CF) theory for fractional quantum Hall filling factor [Formula: see text] (m odd), I consider a suitable quasiparticle operator in differential form, as a modified form of Laughlin's quasiparticle operator, that reproduces quasiparticle wave function as predicted in the CF theory, without a priori assumption of the presence of CFs. I further consider the conjugate of this operator as quasihole operator for obtaining a novel quasihole wave function for 1/m state. Each of these wave functions is interpreted as expelling an electron into a different Hilbert subspace from the original Hilbert space of the Laughlin condensate while still maintaining its correlation (although changed) with the electrons in the condensate such that the expelled electron behaves as a CF with respect to the electrons in the condensate. With this interpretation, I show that the ground state wavefunctions for general states at filling fractions [Formula: see text], respectively, can be constructed as coherent superposition of n coupled Laughlin condensates and their 'conjugates', formed at different Hilbert subspaces. The corresponding wave functions, specially surprising for [Formula: see text] sequence of states, are identical with those proposed in the theory of noninteracting CFs. The states which were considered as fractional quantum Hall effect of interacting CFs, can also be treated in the same footing as for the prominent sequences of states describing as the coupled condensates among which one is a non-Laughlin condensate in a different Hilbert subspace. Further, I predict that the half filling of the lowest Landau level is a quantum critical point for phase transition between two topologically distinct phases each corresponding to a family of states: one consists of large number of coupled Laughlin condensates of filling factor 1/3 and the other corresponds to large number of coupled conjugate Laughlin condensates of filling factor 1, which may be distinguished, respectively, by the absence and presence of upstream edge modes.

arXiv:1507.02161•Journal of Physics Condensed Matter•Aug 28, 2018•3 citations

States of interacting composite fermions at the Landau level filling ν=2+3/8

Csaba Tőke, Chuntai Shi, Jainendra K. Jain

There is increasing experimental evidence for fractional quantum Hall effect at filling factor $\ensuremath{\nu}=2+3/8$. Modeling it as a system of composite fermions, we study the problem of interacting composite fermions by a number of methods. In our variational study, we consider the Fermi sea, the Pfaffian paired state, and bubble and stripe phases of composite fermions, and find that the Fermi sea state is favored for a wide range of transverse thickness. However, when we incorporate interactions between composite fermions through composite-fermion diagonalization on systems with up to 25 composite fermions, we find that a gap opens at the Fermi level, suggesting that inter-composite fermion interaction can induce fractional quantum Hall effect at $\ensuremath{\nu}=2+3/8$. The resulting state is seen to be distinct from the Pfaffian wave function.

arXiv:0804.1635•Physical Review B•Jun 5, 2008•12 citations
It is commonly assumed in the studies of the fractional quantum Hall effect that the physics of a fractional quantum Hall state, in particular the character of its excitations, is invariant under a continuous deformation of the Hamiltonian during which the gap does not close. We show in this article that, at least for finite systems, as the interaction is changed from a model three body interaction to Coulomb, the ground state at filling factor \ensuremathν=2/5\ensuremath{\nu}=2/5\ensuremathν=2/5 evolves continuously from the so-called Gaffnian wave function to the composite fermion wave function, but the quasiholes alter their character in a nonperturbative manner. This is attributed to the fact that the Coulomb interaction opens a gap in the Gaffnian quasihole sector, pushing many of the states to very high energies. Interestingly, the states below the gap are found to have a one-to-one correspondence with the composite fermion theory, suggesting that the Gaffnian model contains composite fermions, and that the Gaffnian quasiholes are unstable to the formation of composite fermions when a two-body interaction term is switched on. General implications of this study are discussed.
We motivate a close look on the usefulness of the Gaffnian and Haffnian quasihole manifold (null spaces of the respective model Hamiltonians) for well-known gapped fractional quantum Hall phases. The conformal invariance of these subspaces is derived explicitly from microscopic many-body states. The resultant conformal field theory (CFT) description leads to an intriguing emergent primary field with h=2,c=0h=2,\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}c=0h=2,c=0, and we argue the quasihole manifolds are quantum mechanically well defined and well behaved. Focusing on the incompressible phases at $\ensuremath{\nu}=\frac{1}{3}$ and 25\frac{2}{5}52​, we show the low-lying excitations of the Laughlin phase are quantum fluids of Gaffnian and Haffnian quasiholes, and give a microscopic argument showing that the Haffnian model Hamiltonian is gapless against Laughlin quasielectrons. We discuss the thermal Hall conductance and shot-noise measurements at $\ensuremath{\nu}=\frac{2}{5}$, and argue that the experimental observations can be understood from the dynamics within the Gaffnian quasihole manifold. A number of detailed predictions on these experimental measurements are proposed, and we discuss their relationships to the conventional CFT arguments and the composite fermion descriptions.
Despite the high overlap with the exact Coulomb ground state, the so-called Gaffnian state fails to describe the incompressibility at the 2/5 quantum Hall filling factor and consequently it was conjectured to be a quantum critical state. To achieve a gapped state starting from the Gaffnian wave function, which we interpret as the interflavor pairing of the composite fermions, we propose a minimally ``modified Gaffnian'' wave function keeping the pairing intact. We find that a suitable hybridization of these two wave functions is an excellent description of the 2/5 quantum Hall state. It has a very high overlap with the exact Coulomb state and their entanglement spectra match up to reasonably higher levels. Interestingly, this hybridized wave function being a representative of a paired state suggests an exotic possibility of non-Abelian quasiparticle excitations at 2/5 filling.
Topological phases of matter are distinguished by topological invariants, such as Chern numbers and topological spins, that quantize their response to electromagnetic currents and changes of ambient geometry. Intriguingly, in the $\ensuremath{\nu}=2/5$ fractional quantum Hall effect, prominent theoretical approaches---the composite fermion theory and conformal field theory---have constructed two distinct states, the Jain composite fermion (CF) state and the Gaffnian state, for which many of the topological indices coincide and even the microscopic ground-state wave functions have high overlap with each other in system sizes accessible to numerics. At the same time, some aspects of these states are expected to be very different; e.g., their elementary excitations should have either Abelian (CF) or non-Abelian (Gaffnian) statistics. In this paper we investigate the close relationship between these two states by considering not only their ground states, but also the low-energy charged excitations. We show that the low-energy physics of both phases is spanned by the same type of quasielectrons of the neighboring Laughlin phase. The main difference between the two states arises due to an implicit assumption of short-range interaction in the CF approach, which causes a large splitting of the variational energies of the Gaffnian excitations. We thus propose that the Jain phase emerges as an effective Abelian low-energy description of the Gaffnian phase when the Hamiltonian is dominated by two-body interactions of sufficiently short range.
The Read-Rezayi wave function is one of the candidates for the fractional quantum Hall effect at filling fraction $\ensuremath{\nu}=2+⅗$, and thereby also its hole conjugate at 2+⅖2+⅖2+⅖. We study a general class of tripartite composite fermion wave functions, which reduce to the Rezayi-Read ground state and quasiholes for appropriate quantum numbers, but also allow a construction of wave functions for quasiparticles and neutral excitations by analogy to the standard composite fermion theory. We present numerical evidence in finite systems that these trial wave functions capture well the low energy physics of a four-body model interaction. We also compare the tripartite composite fermion wave functions with the exact Coulomb eigenstates at 2+⅗2+⅗2+⅗, and find reasonably good agreement. The ground state as well as several excited states of the four-body interaction are seen to evolve adiabatically into the corresponding Coulomb states for N=15N=15N=15 particles. These results support the plausibility of the Read-Rezayi proposal for the 2+⅖2+⅖2+⅖ and 2+⅗2+⅗2+⅗ fractional quantum Hall effect. However, certain other proposals also remain viable, and further study of excitations and edge states will be necessary for a decisive establishment of the physical mechanism of these fractional quantum Hall states.
Motivated by the structure of the quasiparticle wavefunction in the composite fermion (CF) theory for fractional quantum Hall filling factor [Formula: see text] (m odd), I consider a suitable quasiparticle operator in differential form, as a modified form of Laughlin's quasiparticle operator, that reproduces quasiparticle wave function as predicted in the CF theory, without a priori assumption of the presence of CFs. I further consider the conjugate of this operator as quasihole operator for obtaining a novel quasihole wave function for 1/m state. Each of these wave functions is interpreted as expelling an electron into a different Hilbert subspace from the original Hilbert space of the Laughlin condensate while still maintaining its correlation (although changed) with the electrons in the condensate such that the expelled electron behaves as a CF with respect to the electrons in the condensate. With this interpretation, I show that the ground state wavefunctions for general states at filling fractions [Formula: see text], respectively, can be constructed as coherent superposition of n coupled Laughlin condensates and their 'conjugates', formed at different Hilbert subspaces. The corresponding wave functions, specially surprising for [Formula: see text] sequence of states, are identical with those proposed in the theory of noninteracting CFs. The states which were considered as fractional quantum Hall effect of interacting CFs, can also be treated in the same footing as for the prominent sequences of states describing as the coupled condensates among which one is a non-Laughlin condensate in a different Hilbert subspace. Further, I predict that the half filling of the lowest Landau level is a quantum critical point for phase transition between two topologically distinct phases each corresponding to a family of states: one consists of large number of coupled Laughlin condensates of filling factor 1/3 and the other corresponds to large number of coupled conjugate Laughlin condensates of filling factor 1, which may be distinguished, respectively, by the absence and presence of upstream edge modes.
There is increasing experimental evidence for fractional quantum Hall effect at filling factor $\ensuremath{\nu}=2+3/8$. Modeling it as a system of composite fermions, we study the problem of interacting composite fermions by a number of methods. In our variational study, we consider the Fermi sea, the Pfaffian paired state, and bubble and stripe phases of composite fermions, and find that the Fermi sea state is favored for a wide range of transverse thickness. However, when we incorporate interactions between composite fermions through composite-fermion diagonalization on systems with up to 25 composite fermions, we find that a gap opens at the Fermi level, suggesting that inter-composite fermion interaction can induce fractional quantum Hall effect at $\ensuremath{\nu}=2+3/8$. The resulting state is seen to be distinct from the Pfaffian wave function.