We solve models of N species of fermions in the lowest Landau level with U(N)-invariant interactions in the N≫1 limit. We find saddles of the second quantized path integral at fixed chemical potential corresponding to fractional Hall states with filling (p/q), where the integers p and q depend on the chemical potential and interactions. On a long torus there are q such states related by translation symmetry, and SU(N)-invariant excitations of fractional charge. Remarkably, these saddles and their filling persist as extrema of the second-quantized action at N=1. Our construction gives a first-principles derivation of fractional Hall states from strongly interacting fermions.
We solve models of N species of fermions in the lowest Landau level with U(N)-invariant interactions in the N≫1 limit. We find saddles of the second quantized path integral at fixed chemical potential corresponding to fractional Hall states with filling (p/q), where the integers p and q depend on the chemical potential and interactions. On a long torus there are q such states related by translation symmetry, and SU(N)-invariant excitations of fractional charge. Remarkably, these saddles and their filling persist as extrema of the second-quantized action at N=1. Our construction gives a first-principles derivation of fractional Hall states from strongly interacting fermions.
We study N-component interacting particles (hardcore bosons and fermions) loaded in topological lattice models with SU(N)-invariant interactions based on exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group method. By tuning the interplay of interspecies and intraspecies interactions, we demonstrate that a class of SU(N) fractional quantum Hall states can emerge at fractional filling factors $\ensuremath{\nu}=N/(N+1)$ for bosons [$\ensuremath{\nu}=N/(2N+1)$ for fermions] in the lowest Chern band, characterized by the nontrivial fractional Hall responses and the fractional charge pumping. Moreover, we establish a topological characterization based on the K matrix and discuss the close relationship to the fractional quantum Hall physics in topological flat bands with Chern number N.
States of strongly interacting particles are of fundamental interest in physics and can produce exotic emergent phenomena and topological structures. We consider here two-dimensional electrons in a magnetic field, and, departing from the standard practice of restricting to the lowest LL, introduce a model short-range interaction that is infinitely strong compared to the cyclotron energy. We demonstrate that this model lends itself to an exact solution for the ground as well as excited states at arbitrary filling factors ν<1/2p and produces a fractional quantum Hall effect at fractions of the form ν=n/(2pn+1), where n and p are integers. The fractional quantum Hall states of our model share many topological properties with the corresponding Coulomb ground states in the lowest Landau level, such as the edge physics and the fractional charge of the excitations.
We study fractional boundary charges (FBCs) for two classes of strongly interacting systems. First, we study strongly interacting nanowires subjected to a periodic potential with a period that is a rational fraction of the Fermi wavelength. For sufficiently strong interactions, the periodic potential leads to the opening of a charge density wave gap at the Fermi level. The FBC then depends linearly on the phase offset of the potential with a quantized slope determined by the period. Furthermore, different possible values for the FBC at a fixed phase offset label different degenerate ground states of the system that cannot be connected adiabatically. Next, we turn to the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) at odd filling factors $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/(2l+1)$, where l is an integer. For a Corbino disk threaded by an external flux, we find that the FBC depends linearly on the flux with a quantized slope that is determined by the filling factor. Again, the FBC has 2l+1 different branches that cannot be connected adiabatically, reflecting the (2l+1)-fold degeneracy of the ground state. These results allow for several promising and strikingly simple ways to probe strongly interacting phases via boundary charge measurements.
Strong correlation among electrons under high magnetic field gives rise to an entirely new arena of emergent physics, namely fractional quantum Hall effect. Such systems have entirely different elementary degrees of freedom and generally, demand non-perturbative approaches to develop a better understanding. In the literature, there are several analytical methodologies and numerical toolkits available to study such a system. Clustering of zeros, parent Hamiltonian, off-diagonal order parameter, parton construction, matrix product states are to be named among a few of those popular methodologies in the existing literature. Most of these methods work well in the lowest Landau level or holomorphic wavefunction framework. It is, however, imperative to develop such methodology to study systems with Landau levels mixing to study more exotic as well as experimentally relevant states. In this work, we have developed particular methodologies, which denounce the traditional importance of the analytic properties of first quantized model wavefunction thereby extend the existing parent Hamiltonian, topological order-parameter, matrix product states descriptions to mixed Landau level systems. Such extension produces a deeper, compact and holistic understanding of universal physics of exotic phases in strongly correlated systems from the microscopic viewpoint, as well as produces interesting new results. Our second quantized/ non-analytic approach allows us to construct the ``entangled Pauli principle", a guidebook to extract universal/topological properties such as braiding statistics, fractional charge quantization, topological degeneracy of the ground states starting from a relatively simple many-body wavefunction, ``root pattern" of fractional quantum Hall state. Such an entangled Pauli principle can be derived from a microscopic parent Hamiltonian setting, thereby provide us a potential tool to probe the non-universal physics in quantum Hall fluids as well. Essentially, entangled Pauli principle is the ``DNA" of fractional quantum Hall states. Using this guiding principle, we have shown ground states with non-abelian excitations, such as Majorana fermion or Fibonacci fermion can be stabilized for two-particle interaction. Fibonacci fermion supports universal quantum gates, thereby a potential candidate for the topologically protected universal quantum computer. Entangled Pauli principle, along with a recently developed topological order parameter for composite fermions, gives rise to Parent Hamiltonian description for composite fermions as well.
Exact diagonalization of a two-dimensional electron gas in a strong magnetic field in the disk geometry shows that there exists a filling-factor range in the second Landau level where the states significantly differ from those in the lowest Landau level. We show that the difference arises because the interaction between composite fermions is not negligible in higher Landau levels, as indicated by a substantial mixing between composite-fermion Landau-like levels, or $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ levels. We find that the exact ground state is well reproduced by composite-fermion theory with $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-level mixing incorporated at the lowest level of approximation. Using the same variational approach in the spherical geometry we estimate the excitation gap at filling 1∕3 in the second Landau level (which corresponds to 7∕3 of experiment).
The fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effect plays a prominent role in the study of topological phases of matter and of strongly correlated electron systems in general. FQH systems have been demonstrated to show many interesting novel properties such as fractional charges, and are believed to harbor even more intriguing phenomena such as fractional statistics. However, there remain many interesting questions to be addressed in this regime. The work reported in this thesis aims to push the envelope of our understanding of the low-energy properties of FQH states using microscopic principles. In the first part of the thesis, we present a systematic perturbative approach to study excitations in the thin cylinder/torus limit of the quantum Hall states. The approach is applied to the Haldane-Rezayi and Gaffnian quantum Hall states, which are both expected to have gapless excitations in the usual two-dimensional thermodynamic limit. For the Haldane-Rezayi state, we confirm that gapless excitations are present also in the ``one-dimensional'' thermodynamic limit of an infinite thin cylinder, in agreement with earlier considerations based on the wave functions alone. In contrast, we identify the lowest excitations of the Gaffnian state in the thin cylinder limit, and conclude that they are gapped, using a combination of perturbative and numerical means. We discuss possible scenarios for the cross-over between the two-dimensional and the one-dimensional thermodynamic limit in this case. In the second part of the thesis, we study the low energy spectral properties of positive center-of-mass conserving two-body Hamiltonians as they arise in models of FQH states. Starting from the observation that positive many-body Hamiltonians must have ground state energies that increase monotonously in particle number, we explore what general additional constraints can be obtained for two-body interactions with "center-of-mass conservation" symmetry, both in the presence and absence of particle-hole symmetry. We find general bounds that constrain the evolution of the ground state energy with particle number, and in particular constrain the chemical potential at T=0. Special attention is given to Hamiltonians with zero modes, in which case similar bounds on the first excited state are also obtained, using a duality property. In this case, in particular an upper bound on the charge gap is also obtained. We further comment on center-of-mass and relative-decomposition in disk geometry within the framework of second quantization.