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arXiv:2012.10459 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Composite fermion nonlinear sigma models

Chao-Jung Lee, Prashant Kumar, Michael Mulligan

Published Sep 13, 2021• 5 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study particle-hole symmetry at the integer quantum Hall plateau transition using composite fermion mean-field theory. Because this theory implicitly includes some electron-electron interactions, it also has applications to certain fractional quantum Hall plateau transitions. Previous work [P. Kumar et al., Phys. Rev. B 100, 235124 (2019)] using this approach showed that the diffusive quantum criticality of this transition is described by a nonlinear sigma model with topological $\ensuremath{\theta}=\ensuremath{\pi}$ term. This result, which holds for both the Dirac and Halperin, Lee, and Read composite fermion theories, signifies an emergent particle-hole (reflection) symmetry of the integer (fractional) quantum Hall transition. Here we consider the stability of this result to various particle-hole symmetry-violating perturbations. In the presence of quenched disorder that preserves particle-hole symmetry, we find that finite longitudinal conductivity at this transition requires the vanishing of a symmetry-violating composite fermion effective mass, which if present would generally lead to $\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\ne}\ensuremath{\pi}$ and a corresponding violation of particle-hole symmetric electrical transport ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{xy}\ensuremath{\ne}\frac{1}{2}\frac{{e}^{2}}{h}$. When the disorder does not preserve particle-hole symmetry, we find that $\ensuremath{\theta}$ can vary continuously within the diffusive regime. Our results call for further study of the universality of the quantum Hall plateau transition.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.104.125119

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We study particle-hole symmetry at the integer quantum Hall plateau transition using composite fermion mean-field theory. Because this theory implicitly includes some electron-electron interactions, it also has applications to certain fractional quantum Hall plateau transitions. Previous work [P. Kumar et al., Phys. Rev. B 100, 235124 (2019)] using this approach showed that the diffusive quantum criticality of this transition is described by a nonlinear sigma model with topological \ensuremathθ=\ensuremathπ\ensuremath{\theta}=\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremathθ=\ensuremathπ term. This result, which holds for both the Dirac and Halperin, Lee, and Read composite fermion theories, signifies an emergent particle-hole (reflection) symmetry of the integer (fractional) quantum Hall transition. Here we consider the stability of this result to various particle-hole symmetry-violating perturbations. In the presence of quenched disorder that preserves particle-hole symmetry, we find that finite longitudinal conductivity at this transition requires the vanishing of a symmetry-violating composite fermion effective mass, which if present would generally lead to \ensuremathθ\ensuremath≠\ensuremathπ\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\ne}\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremathθ\ensuremath=\ensuremathπ and a corresponding violation of particle-hole symmetric electrical transport \ensuremathσxy\ensuremath≠12e2h{\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{xy}\ensuremath{\ne}\frac{1}{2}\frac{{e}^{2}}{h}\ensuremathσxy​\ensuremath=21​he2​. When the disorder does not preserve particle-hole symmetry, we find that \ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathθ can vary continuously within the diffusive regime. Our results call for further study of the universality of the quantum Hall plateau transition.
We consider the Hall conductivity of composite fermions in the theory of Halperin, Lee, and Read (HLR) [B. I. Halperin, P. A. Lee, and N. Read, Phys. Rev. B 47, 7312 (1993)]. We present a fully quantum-mechanical numerical calculation that shows, under suitable conditions, the HLR theory exhibits a particle-hole symmetric dc electrical Hall response in the presence of quenched disorder. Remarkably, this response of the HLR theory remains robust even when the disorder range is of the order of the Fermi wavelength. We find that deviations from the particle-hole symmetric response can appear in the ac Hall conductivity at frequencies sufficiently large compared to the inverse system size. Our results agree with a recent semiclassical analysis by Wang et al. [C. Wang, N. R. Cooper, B. I. Halperin, and A. Stern, Phys. Rev. X 7, 031029 (2017)] and complement the arguments based on the fully quantum-mechanical model by Kumar et al. [P. Kumar, M. Mulligan, and S. Raghu, Phys. Rev. B 98, 115105 (2018)]. These results provide further evidence that the HLR theory is compatible with an emergent particle-hole symmetry.
Motivated by the issue of particle-hole symmetry for the composite fermion Fermi sea at the half filled Landau level, Dam T. Son has made an intriguing proposal [Phys. Rev. X {\bf 5}, 031027 (2015)] that composite fermions are Dirac particles. We ask what features of the Dirac-composite fermion theory and its various consequences may be reconciled with the well established microscopic theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect and the 1/2 state, which is based on {\em non-relativistic} composite fermions. Starting from the microscopic theory, we derive the assertion of Son that the particle-hole transformation of electrons at filling factor ν=1/2\nu=1/2ν=1/2 corresponds to an effective time reversal transformation (i.e. {k⃗j}\{\vec{k}_j\}{kj​}→\rightarrow→{−k⃗j}\{-\vec{k}_j\}{−kj​}) for composite fermions, and discuss how this connects to the absence of 2kF2k_{\rm F}2kF​ backscattering in the presence of a particle-hole symmetric disorder. By considering bare holes in various composite-fermion Λ\LambdaΛ levels (analogs of electronic Landau levels) we determine the Λ\LambdaΛ level spacing and find it to be very nearly independent of the Λ\LambdaΛ level index, consistent with a parabolic dispersion for the underlying composite fermions. Finally, we address the compatibility of the Chern-Simons theory with the lowest Landau level constraint, and find that the wave functions of the mean-field Chern-Simons theory, as well as a class of topologically similar wave functions, are surprisingly accurate when projected into the lowest Landau level. These considerations lead us to introduce a normal form for the unprojected wave functions of the n/(2pn−1)n/(2pn-1)n/(2pn−1) states that correctly capture the topological properties even without lowest Landau level projection.
A recent experimental study [Pan et al., arXiv:1902.10262] has shown that fractional quantum Hall effect gaps are essentially consistent with particle-hole symmetry in the lowest Landau level. Motivated by this result, we consider a clean two-dimensional electron system from the viewpoint of composite fermion mean-field theory. In this paper, we show that while the experiment is manifestly consistent with a Dirac composite fermion theory proposed recently by Son, it can equally well be explained within the framework of nonrelativistic composite fermions, first put forward by Halperin, Lee, and Read.
We study fractional quantum Hall states at filling fractions in the Jain sequences using the framework of composite Dirac fermions. Synthesizing previous work, we write an effective field theory consistent with all symmetry requirements, including Galilean invariance and particle-hole symmetry. Employing a Fermi-liquid description, we demonstrate the appearance of the Girvin-Macdonald-Platzman algebra and compute the dispersion relation of neutral excitations and various response functions. Our results satisfy requirements of particle-hole symmetry. We show that while the dispersion relation obtained from the modified random-phase approximation (MRPA) of the Halperin-Lee-Read (HLR) theory is particle-hole symmetric, correlation functions obtained from this scheme are not. The results of the Dirac theory are shown to be consistent with the Haldane bound on the projected structure factor, while those of the MPRA of the HLR theory violate it.
We introduce and analyze a class of model systems to study transitions in the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE). Even without disorder our model exhibits an IQHE transition as a control parameter is varied. We find that the transition is in the two-dimensional Ising universality class and compute all associated exponents and critical transport properties. The fixed point has time-reversal, particle-hole, and parity invariance. We then consider the effect of quenched disorder on the IQHE transition and find the following. (i) Randomness in the control parameter (which breaks all the above symmetries) translates into bond randomness in the Ising model and is hence marginally irrelevant. The transition may equally well be viewed as a quantum percolation of edge states localized on equipotentials. The absence of random-phase factors for the edge states is responsible for the nongeneric (Ising) critical properties. (ii) For a random magnetic field (which preserves particle-hole symmetry in every realization) the model exhibits an exactly solvable fixed line, described in terms of a product of a Luttinger liquid and an SU(n) spin chain. While exponents vary continuously along the fixed line, the longitudinal conductivity is constant due to a general conformal sum rule for Kac-Moody algebras (derived here), and is computed exactly. We also obtain a closed expression for the extended zero-energy wave function for every realization of disorder and compute its exact multifractal spectrum f(\ensuremath{\alpha}) and the exponents of all participation ratios. One point on the fixed line corresponds to a recently proposed model by Gade and Wegner. (iii) The model in the presence of a random on-site potential scales to a strong disorder regime, which is argued to be described by a symplectic nonlinear-sigma-model fixed point. (iv) We find a plausible global phase diagram in which all forms of disorder are simultaneously considered. In this generic case, the presence of random-phase factors in the edge-state description indicates that the transition is described by a Chalker-Coddington model, with a so far analytically inaccessible fixed point.
The particle-hole (PH) symmetry of electrons is an exact symmetry of the electronic Hamiltonian confined to a specific Landau level, and its interplay with the formation of composite fermions has attracted much attention of late. We investigate an emergent symmetry in the fractional quantum Hall effect, namely, the PH symmetry of composite fermions, which relates states at composite fermion filling factors ${\ensuremath{\nu}}^{*}=n+\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\nu}}^{*}=n+1\ensuremath{-}\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}$, where the integer nnn is the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$-level index and $0\ensuremath{\le}\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}\ensuremath{\le}1$. Detailed calculations using the microscopic theory of composite fermions demonstrate the following for low-lying $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ levels (small nnn): (i) The two-body interaction between composite-fermion particles is very similar, apart from a constant additive term and an overall scale factor, to that between composite-fermion holes in the same $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ level; and (ii) the three-body interaction for composite fermions is an order of magnitude smaller than the two-body interaction. Taken together, these results imply an approximate PH symmetry for composite fermions in low $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ levels, which is also supported by exact-diagonalization studies and available experiments. This symmetry, which relates states at electron filling factors $\ensuremath{\nu}=\frac{n+\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}{2(n+\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}})\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1}$ and $\ensuremath{\nu}=\frac{n+1\ensuremath{-}\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}{2(n+1\ensuremath{-}\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}})\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1}$, is not present in the original Hamiltonian and owes its existence entirely to the formation of composite fermions. With increasing $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$-level index, the two-body and three-body pseudopotentials become comparable, but at the same time they both diminish in magnitude, indicating that the interaction between composite fermions becomes weak as we approach $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/2$.