Abstract Conformal field theory has turned out to be a powerful tool to derive two-dimensional lattice models displaying fractional quantum Hall physics. So far most of the work has been for lattices with open boundary conditions in at least one of the two directions, but it is desirable to also be able to handle the case of periodic boundary conditions. Here, we take steps in this direction by deriving analytical expressions for a family of conformal field theory states on the torus that is closely related to the family of bosonic and fermionic Laughlin states. We compute how the states transform when a particle is moved around the torus and when the states are translated or rotated, and we provide numerical evidence in particular cases that the states become orthonormal up to a common factor for large lattices. We use these results to find the S -matrix of the states, which turns out to be the same as for the continuum Laughlin states. Finally, we show that when the states are defined on a square lattice with suitable lattice spacing they practically coincide with the Laughlin states restricted to a lattice.
Abstract Conformal field theory has turned out to be a powerful tool to derive two-dimensional lattice models displaying fractional quantum Hall physics. So far most of the work has been for lattices with open boundary conditions in at least one of the two directions, but it is desirable to also be able to handle the case of periodic boundary conditions. Here, we take steps in this direction by deriving analytical expressions for a family of conformal field theory states on the torus that is closely related to the family of bosonic and fermionic Laughlin states. We compute how the states transform when a particle is moved around the torus and when the states are translated or rotated, and we provide numerical evidence in particular cases that the states become orthonormal up to a common factor for large lattices. We use these results to find the S -matrix of the states, which turns out to be the same as for the continuum Laughlin states. Finally, we show that when the states are defined on a square lattice with suitable lattice spacing they practically coincide with the Laughlin states restricted to a lattice.
Conformal field theory has turned out to be a powerful tool to derive two-dimensional lattice models displaying fractional quantum Hall physics. So far most of the work has been for lattices with open boundary conditions in at least one of the two directions, but it is desirable to also be able to handle the case of periodic boundary conditions. Here, we take steps in this direction by deriving analytical expressions for a family of conformal field theory states on the torus that is closely related to the family of bosonic and fermionic Laughlin states. We compute how the states transform when a particle is moved around the torus and when the states are translated or rotated, and we provide numerical evidence in particular cases that the states become orthonormal up to a common factor for large lattices. We use these results to find the S-matrix of the states, which turns out to be the same as for the continuum Laughlin states. Finally, we show that when the states are defined on a square lattice with suitable lattice spacing they practically coincide with the Laughlin states restricted to a lattice.
The Kalmeyer-Laughlin state, which is a lattice version of the bosonic Laughlin state at filling factor one half, has attracted much attention due to its topological and chiral spin liquid properties. Here we show that the Kalmeyer-Laughlin state on the torus can be expressed in terms of a correlator of conformal fields from the SU(2)1 Wess-Zumino-Witten model. This reveals an interesting underlying mathematical structure and provides a natural way to generalize the Kalmeyer-Laughlin state to arbitrary lattices on the torus. We find that the many-body Chern number of the states is unity for more different lattices, which suggests that the topological properties of the states are preserved when the lattice is changed. Finally, we analyze the symmetry properties of the states on square lattices.
There has been significant interest in recent years in finding fractional quantum Hall physics in lattice models, but it is not always clear how these models connect to the corresponding models in continuum systems. Here we introduce a family of models that is able to interpolate between a recently proposed set of lattice models with Laughlin-like ground states constructed from conformal field theory and models with ground states that are practically the usual bosonic/fermionic Laughlin states in the continuum. Both the ground state and the Hamiltonian are known analytically, and we find that the Hamiltonian in the continuum limit does not coincide with the usual delta interaction Hamiltonian for the Laughlin states. We introduce quasiholes into the models and show analytically that their braiding properties are as expected if the quasiholes are screened. We demonstrate screening numerically for the 1/3 Laughlin model and find that the quasiholes are slightly smaller in the continuum than in the lattice. Finally, we compute the effective magnetic field felt by the quasiholes and show that it is close to uniform when approaching the continuum limit. The techniques presented here to interpolate between the lattice and the continuum can also be applied to other fractional quantum Hall states that are constructed from conformal field theory.
The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE), now entering it's fourth decade, continues to draw attention from the condensed matter community. New experiments in recent years are raising hopes that it will be possible to observe quasi-particles with non-abelian anyonic statistics. These particles could form the building blocks of a quantum computer.The quantum Hall states have topologically protected energy gaps to the low-lying set of excitations. This topological order is not a locally measurable quantity but rather a non-local object, and it is one of the keys to it's stability. From an early stage understanding of the FQHE has been facilitate by constructing trial wave functions. The topological classification of these wave functions have given further insight to the nature of the FQHE.An early, and successful, wave function construction for filling fractions ν=p/(2p+1) was that of composite fermions on planar and spherical geometries. Recently, new developments using conformal field theory have made it possible to also construct the full Haldane-Halperin hierarchy wave functions on planar and spherical geometries. In this thesis we extend this construction to a toroidal geometry, i.e. a flat surface with periodic boundary conditions.One of the defining features of topological states of matter in two dimensions is that the ground state is not unique on surfaces with non trivial topology, such as a torus. The archetypical example is the fractional quantum Hall effect, where a state at filling fraction ν=p/q, has at least a q-fold degeneracy on a torus. This has been shown explicitly for a few cases, such as the Laughlin states and the the Moore-Read states, by explicit construction of candidate electron wave functions with good overlap with numerically found states. In this thesis, we construct explicit torus wave functions for a large class of experimentally important quantum liquids, namely the chiral hierarchy states in the lowest Landau level. These states, which includes the prominently observed positive Jain sequence at filling fractions ν=p/(2p+1), are characterized by having boundary modes with only one chirality.Our construction relies heavily on previous work that expressed the hierarchy wave functions on a plane or a sphere in terms of correlation functions in a conformal field theory. This construction can be taken over to the torus when care is taken to ensure correct behaviour under the modular transformations that leave the geometry of the torus unchanged. Our construction solves the long standing problem of engineering torus wave functions for multi-component many-body states. Since the resulting expressions are rather complicated, we have carefully compared the simplest example, that of ν=2/5, with numerically found wave functions. We have found an extremely good overlap for arbitrary values of the modular parameter τ, that describes the geometry of the torus.Having explicit torus wave functions allows us to use the methods developed by Read and Read \& Rezayi to numerically compute the quantum Hall viscosity. Hall viscosity is conjectured to be a topologically protected macroscopic transport coefficient characterizing the quantum Hall state. It is related to the shift of the same QH-fluid when it is put on a sphere. The good agreement with the theoretical prediction for the 2/5 state strongly suggests that our wave functions encodes all relevant topologically information.We also consider the Hall viscosity in the limit of a very thin torus. There we find that the viscosity changes as we approach the thin torus limit. Because of this we study the Laughlin state in that limit and see how the change in viscosity arises from a change in the Hamiltonian hopping elements. Finally we conclude that there are both qualitative and quantitative difference between the thin and the square torus. Thus, one has to be careful when interpreting results in the thin torus limit.
We introduce one-dimensional lattice models with exact matrix-product ground states describing the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states in Laughlin series (given by filling factors $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/q$) on torus geometry. Surprisingly, the exactly solvable Hamiltonian has the same mathematical structure as that of the pseudopotential for the Laughlin wave function, and naturally derives the general properties of the Laughlin wave function such as the Z2 properties of the FQH states and the fermion-boson relation. The obtained exact ground states have high overlaps with the Laughlin states and well describe their properties. Using the matrix product method, density functions and correlation functions are calculated analytically. Especially, obtained entanglement spectra reflect gapless edge states as was discussed by Li and Haldane.
The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE), now entering it's fourth decade, continues to draw attention from the condensed matter community. New experiments in recent years are raising hopes that it will be possible to observe quasi-particles with non-abelian anyonic statistics. These particles could form the building blocks of a quantum computer. The quantum Hall states have topologically protected energy gaps to the low-lying set of excitations. This topological order is not a locally measurable quantity but rather a non-local object, and it is one of the keys to it's stability. From an early stage understanding of the FQHE has been facilitate by constructing trial wave functions. The topological classification of these wave functions have given further insight to the nature of the FQHE. An early, and successful, wave function construction for filling fractions ν=p/(2p+1) was that of composite fermions on planar and spherical geometries. Recently, new developments using conformal field theory have made it possible to also construct the full Haldane-Halperin hierarchy wave functions on planar and spherical geometries. In this thesis we extend this construction to a toroidal geometry, i.e. a flat surface with periodic boundary conditions. One of the defining features of topological states of matter in two dimensions is that the ground state is not unique on surfaces with non trivial topology, such as a torus. The archetypical example is the fractional quantum Hall effect, where a state at filling fraction ν=p/q, has at least a q-fold degeneracy on a torus. This has been shown explicitly for a few cases, such as the Laughlin states and the the Moore-Read states, by explicit construction of candidate electron wave functions with good overlap with numerically found states. In this thesis, we construct explicit torus wave functions for a large class of experimentally important quantum liquids, namely the chiral hierarchy states in the lowest Landau level. These states, which includes the prominently observed positive Jain sequence at filling fractions ν=p/(2p+1), are characterized by having boundary modes with only one chirality. Our construction relies heavily on previous work that expressed the hierarchy wave functions on a plane or a sphere in terms of correlation functions in a conformal field theory. This construction can be taken over to the torus when care is taken to ensure correct behaviour under the modular transformations that leave the geometry of the torus unchanged. Our construction solves the long standing problem of engineering torus wave functions for multi-component many-body states. Since the resulting expressions are rather complicated, we have carefully compared the simplest example, that of ν=2/5, with numerically found wave functions. We have found an extremely good overlap for arbitrary values of the modular parameter τ, that describes the geometry of the torus. Having explicit torus wave functions allows us to use the methods developed by Read and Read \\& Rezayi to numerically compute the quantum Hall viscosity. Hall viscosity is conjectured to be a topologically protected macroscopic transport coefficient characterizing the quantum Hall state. It is related to the shift of the same QH-fluid when it is put on a sphere. The good agreement with the theoretical prediction for the 2/5 state strongly suggests that our wave functions encodes all relevant topologically information. We also consider the Hall viscosity in the limit of a very thin torus. There we find that the viscosity changes as we approach the thin torus limit. Because of this we study the Laughlin state in that limit and see how the change in viscosity arises from a change in the Hamiltonian hopping elements. Finally we conclude that there are both qualitative and quantitative difference between the thin and the square torus. Thus, one has to be careful when interpreting results in the thin torus limit.