A two-dimensional system of electrons with repulsive two-particle interaction is considered in a homogeneous magnetic field. Assuming the limit of high magnetic field the motion of the electrons is restricted to the lowest Landau level. We present quantum-mechanical wave functions for the many-particle system of N spin-polarized fermions on a parallelogram with periodic boundary conditions and with ${\mathit{N}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}$ quanta of magnetic flux flowing through its area. These wave functions are generalizations of the Laughlin wave function to more general rational values of the occupation fraction \ensuremath{\nu}=N/${\mathit{N}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}$. We divide the N electrons into n groups and assume Laughlin-Jastrow-type correlations for electrons within the same group, while electrons in different groups are correlated with a second Jastrow function. The corresponding wave functions exhibit a special structure that depends on \ensuremath{\nu} but is not affected by the interaction between the particles. Furthermore, we consider excited states with quasielectrons and quasiholes. Our theory leads to a unified view of the composite fermion theory of Jain and the hierarchy theory of Haldane, Laughlin, and Halperin. We present a qualitative argument why the fractions of Jain are observed preferably in the experiments.
A two-dimensional system of electrons with repulsive two-particle interaction is considered in a homogeneous magnetic field. Assuming the limit of high magnetic field the motion of the electrons is restricted to the lowest Landau level. We present quantum-mechanical wave functions for the many-particle system of N spin-polarized fermions on a parallelogram with periodic boundary conditions and with N\ensuremathΦ quanta of magnetic flux flowing through its area. These wave functions are generalizations of the Laughlin wave function to more general rational values of the occupation fraction \ensuremath{\nu}=N/N\ensuremathΦ. We divide the N electrons into n groups and assume Laughlin-Jastrow-type correlations for electrons within the same group, while electrons in different groups are correlated with a second Jastrow function. The corresponding wave functions exhibit a special structure that depends on \ensuremath{\nu} but is not affected by the interaction between the particles. Furthermore, we consider excited states with quasielectrons and quasiholes. Our theory leads to a unified view of the composite fermion theory of Jain and the hierarchy theory of Haldane, Laughlin, and Halperin. We present a qualitative argument why the fractions of Jain are observed preferably in the experiments.
We consider spin-polarized electrons in a single Landau level on a torus. The quantum Hall problem is mapped onto a one-dimensional lattice model with lattice constant $2\ensuremath{\pi}/{L}_{1}$, where L1 is a circumference of the torus (in units of the magnetic length). In the Tao-Thouless limit ${L}_{1}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, the interacting many-electron problem is exactly diagonalized at any rational filling factor $\ensuremath{\nu}=p/q\ensuremath{\le}1$. For odd q, the ground state has the same qualitative properties as a bulk $({L}_{1}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty})$ quantum Hall hierarchy state and the lowest-energy quasiparticle excitations have the same fractional charges as in the bulk. These states are the ${L}_{1}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ limits of the Laughlin and Jain wave functions for filling fractions where these exist. We argue that the exact solutions generically, for odd q, are continuously connected to the two-dimensional bulk quantum Hall hierarchy states---i.e., that there is no phase transition as ${L}_{1}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ for filling factors where such states can be observed. For even-denominator fractions, a phase transition occurs as L1 increases. For $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/2$ this leads to the system being mapped onto a Luttinger liquid of neutral particles at small but finite L1; this then develops continuously into the composite fermion wave function that is believed to describe the bulk $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/2$ system. The analysis generalizes to non-Abelian quantum Hall states.
The fractional quantum Hall effect was experimentally discovered in 1982. It was observed that the Hall conductivity σyx of a two-dimensional electron system is quantized, σyx=e2/3h, in the vicinity of the Landau level filling factor ν=1/3. In 1983, Laughlin proposed a trial many-body wave function, which he claimed described a “new state of matter”—a homogeneous incompressible liquid with fractionally charged quasiparticles. Here, I develop an exact diagonalization theory that allows one to calculate the energy and other physical properties of the ground and excited states of a system of N two-dimensional Coulomb interacting electrons in a strong magnetic field. I analyze the energies, electron densities, and other physical properties of the systems with N≤7 electrons continuously as a function of magnetic field in the range 1/4≲ν<1. The results show that both the ground and excited states of the system resemble a sliding Wigner crystal whose parameters are influenced by the magnetic field. Energy gaps in the many-particle spectra appear and disappear as the magnetic field changes. I also calculate the physical properties of the ν=1/3 Laughlin state for N≤8 and compare the results with the exact ones. This comparison, as well as an analysis of some other statements published in the literature, show that the Laughlin state and its fractionally charged excitations do not describe the physical reality, neither at small N nor in the thermodynamic limit. The results obtained shed new light on the nature of the ground and excited states in the fractional quantum Hall effect.
New trial wave functions corresponding to half filling quantum Hall states are proposed. These wave functions are constructed by first pairing up the quasielectrons of the 1/3 Laughlin quantum Hall state, with the same relative angular momentum for each pair, and then making the paired quasielectrons condense into a 1/4 Laughlin state. The quasiparticle excitations of the proposed wave functions carry ±1/4 of electron charge, and obey Abelian fractional statistics. In the spherical geometry, the total flux quanta Nϕ is shown to be related to the number of electrons N by Nϕ=2N−(5−q) with q being the relative angular momentum between the quasielectrons in each pair which takes values of non-negative even integers. The overlaps are calculated between the proposed trial wave functions, including the ground state, quasiexciton states, and quasihole states, and the exact states of the finite size systems at Nϕ=2N−3. The near unity overlaps are obtained in the lowest Landau level, while the moderate overlaps are obtained in the second Landau level. The relevance of the wave functions to the yet to be discovered fractional quantum Hall effect in the lowest Landau level, as well as the 5/2 quantum Hall effect is also discussed.
It has long been known that Laughlin's wave functions, describing the fractional quantum Hall effect at filling fractions ν=1/(2k+1), can be obtained as correlation functions in conformal field theory. We show how to generalize this approach to construct explicit trial wave functions for all states in the quantum Hall hierarchy corresponding to quasiparticle (as opposed to quasihole) condensates, including the recently observed state at ν= 4/11. At the filling fractions ν= n/(2np+1) this construction exactly reproduces Jain's composite fermion wave functions. An explicit connection is made to Wen's topological classification of FQH states.
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.
Abstract. In this letter, we propose a new quasielectron trial wavefunction for N interacting electrons in two dimensions moving in a strong magnetic field in a disk geometry. Requiring that the trial wavefunction exhibits the correct filling factor of a quasielectron wavefunction, we obtain N + 1 angular momentum eigenfunctions. The expectation values of the energy are calculated and compared with the data of an exact numerical diagonalization. PACS. 71.45N, 73.40L 1 Trial wavefunctions have been used very successfully to describe the lowenergy properties of interacting electrons moving in two dimensions in a strong magnetic field [1]. The prime example is the Laughlin wavefunction [2], which describes the ground state of the system at some of the filling factors of the lowest spin-polarized Landau level (i. e. electronic densities), for which one observes the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) [3]. Deviations from such a state to higher or lower filling factors are then described by quasielectrons or quasiholes, for which trial wavefunctions are also proposed [2]. These are the constituents of the hierarchical picture [4, 5] which is used to describe FQHE states at the remaining rational filling factors observed which are different from 1/m (m odd integer). The quasiparticles have also been proven to be a useful tool in numerical studies of the FQHE system for small particle numbers. Excitation energies have been calculated [5, 6, 7, 8] and even some of the quasiparticle interactions have been obtained [9, 10]. The situation is rather satisfying for the quasiholes, but, in the case of the quasielectrons, questions remain. Some of these we address in the present letter. After introducing our notation, we present a new trial wavefunction for the quasielectron state and then give as an illustration the first numerical results for the expectation-value of the energy. We study the disk geometry in which the single particle basis of the lowest Landau level is given by φm(z) =