© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

Terms Privacy Legal Notice

International Journal of Modern Physics B

FRACTIONAL QUANTUM HALL EFFECT: CONSTRUCTION OF THE HARTREE–FOCK STATE BY USING TRANSLATIONAL COVARIANCE

Ruggero Ferrari A

Published Feb 28, 1994• 5 citations

Abstract

The formalism introduced in a previous paper is used for discussing the Coulomb interaction of many electrons moving in two space-dimensions in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The matrix element of the Coulomb interaction is evaluated in the new basis, whose states are invariant under discrete translations (up to a gauge transformation). This paper is devoted to the case of low filling factor, thus we limit ourselves to the lowest Landau level and to spins all oriented along the magnetic field. For the case of filling factor νf = 1/u we give an Ansatz on the state of many electrons which provides a good approximated solution of the Hartree–Fock equation. For general filling factor νf = u′/u a trial state is given which converges very rapidly to a solution of the self-consistent equation. We generalize the Hartree–Fock equation by considering some correlation: all quantum states are allowed for the u′ electrons with the same translation quantum numbers. Numerical results are given for the mean energy and the energy bands, for some values of the filling factor (νf = 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 1/4, 3/4, 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5). Our results agree numerically with the Charge Density Wave approach. The boundary conditions are shown to be very important: only large systems (degeneracy of Landau level over 200) are not affected by the boundaries. Therefore results obtained on small scale systems are somewhat unreliable. The relevance of the results for the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect is briefly discussed.

DOI: 10.1142/s0217979294000221

Related papers

Toward a New Theory of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

Sergey A. Mikhailov

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.

arXiv:2206.05152•Nanomaterials•Jan 31, 2024•1 citation

STRONGLY CORRELATED PHASES IN QUANTUM HALL SYSTEMS

Amartya Saha

Quantum Hall systems have a one-body energy spectrum consisting of dispersion-less Landau levels. Electron-electron interactions thus dominate in partially filled Landau levels, which exhibit a myriad of strongly correlated phases such as quantum hall ferromagnets and fractional quantum Hall phases. We study two examples of these phenomena. In the first project, we explore the ground state of a system with an interface between two semi-infinite regions with fillings ν= 4 and ν= 3 respectively. The width of the interface can be controlled by varying the background potential, which provides an additional tuning parameter. For a certain range of interaction strengths, the ν= 4 bulk is unpolarized whereas the ν= 3 bulk is fully polarized. In the parameter space spanned by the interaction strength and width of the interface, we find two phases at the interface. Phase A has spin as a good quantum number, and the long-wavelength spin edge excitations are gapped. In phase B, spin rotation symmetry is spontaneously broken at the mean-field level. Using symmetry arguments we find the effective theory near the interface of phase B. This effective theory is known to have gapless long-wavelength spin excitations. In the second project, we study the ground state of a tunnel-decoupled double-layer graphene system when both layers are undoped. We find a simple Hamiltonian in the continuum limit from symmetries of the system. Using the Hartree-Fock approximation we find a state with inter-layer coherence with broken layer U(1) symmetry. This phase becomes magnetized in presence of a non-zero Zeeman field. A first-order phase transition can be driven from the ferromagnetic phase to the magnetized inter-layer coherent phase by increasing the Zeeman field. We predict the number of gapless modes in the bulk.

•Aug 10, 2021•0 citations

Magnetization of quantum Hall systems

R. Haussmann

The magnetic properties of a two-dimensional interacting electron system in a strong magnetic field are considered in the quantum Hall regime, where the motion of the electrons is restricted to the lowest Landau level. We apply an approach based on the many-particle quantum-field theory which we developed recently for the spin-polarized system in the fractional quantum Hall regime, and which treats the problem of the degeneracy of a partially filled Landau level properly. Via a gauge transformation of the fermion Green's function, we achieve a dressing of the propagator with multiple collective excitations. Our theory allows a calculation of the magnetic polarization $M(T)$ for higher temperatures $T$, where $M(T)\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.4$ is not too large. For filling factor $\ensuremath{\nu}=1$ we obtain a magnetic polarization $M(T)$ which agrees quite well with the data of a NMR experiment by Barrett [Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 5112 (1995)].

Physical review. B, Condensed matter•Oct 15, 1997•18 citations

Exactly Solvable Model for Strongly Interacting Electrons in a Magnetic Field

Abhishek Anand, Jainendra K. Jain, G. J. Sreejith

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.

arXiv:2010.12594•Physical Review Letters•Mar 29, 2021•6 citations

Higher-order fractional quantum Hall effect

W. P. Su

The Hamiltonian describing interacting two-dimensional electrons in a high magnetic field is diagonalized numerically for a small number of particles to obtain the low-lying excitation spectra. The results include estimates of energy gaps for values of $\ensuremath{\nu}$ (the lowest-Landau-level filling factor) equal to certain multiples of $\frac{1}{5}$, $\frac{1}{7}$, $\frac{1}{9}$, and $\frac{1}{11}$. These $\ensuremath{\nu}'\mathrm{s}$ are characterized by the existence of periodic rigid parent states which generate maximum phase space. The even-denominator cases are markedly different.

Physical review. B, Condensed matter•Aug 15, 1985•20 citations

Band structure of the fractional quantum Hall effect

Gautam Dev, Jainendra K. Jain

The eigenstates of interacting electrons in the fractional quantum Hall phase typically form fairly well-defined bands in the energy space. We study systems of six and eight electrons for filling factor 3/7>\ensuremath{\nu}> 2) / 7 and show that composite fermion theory gives insight into the origin of these bands and provides an accurate and complete microscopic description of the strongly correlated many-body states in the low-energy bands. This implies that, somewhat like in Landau's Fermi liquid theory, there is a one-to-one analogy between the low-energy Hilbert space of strongly interacting electrons in the fractional quantum Hall effect and that of weakly interacting electrons in the integer quantum Hall effect.

arXiv:cond-mat/9208009•Physical Review Letters•Nov 9, 1992•139 citations

The formalism introduced in a previous paper is used for discussing the Coulomb interaction of many electrons moving in two space-dimensions in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The matrix element of the Coulomb interaction is evaluated in the new basis, whose states are invariant under discrete translations (up to a gauge transformation). This paper is devoted to the case of low filling factor, thus we limit ourselves to the lowest Landau level and to spins all oriented along the magnetic field. For the case of filling factor νf = 1/u we give an Ansatz on the state of many electrons which provides a good approximated solution of the Hartree–Fock equation. For general filling factor νf = u′/u a trial state is given which converges very rapidly to a solution of the self-consistent equation. We generalize the Hartree–Fock equation by considering some correlation: all quantum states are allowed for the u′ electrons with the same translation quantum numbers. Numerical results are given for the mean energy and the energy bands, for some values of the filling factor (νf = 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 1/4, 3/4, 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5). Our results agree numerically with the Charge Density Wave approach. The boundary conditions are shown to be very important: only large systems (degeneracy of Landau level over 200) are not affected by the boundaries. Therefore results obtained on small scale systems are somewhat unreliable. The relevance of the results for the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect is briefly discussed.

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.

Quantum Hall systems have a one-body energy spectrum consisting of dispersion-less Landau levels. Electron-electron interactions thus dominate in partially filled Landau levels, which exhibit a myriad of strongly correlated phases such as quantum hall ferromagnets and fractional quantum Hall phases. We study two examples of these phenomena. In the first project, we explore the ground state of a system with an interface between two semi-infinite regions with fillings ν= 4 and ν= 3 respectively. The width of the interface can be controlled by varying the background potential, which provides an additional tuning parameter. For a certain range of interaction strengths, the ν= 4 bulk is unpolarized whereas the ν= 3 bulk is fully polarized. In the parameter space spanned by the interaction strength and width of the interface, we find two phases at the interface. Phase A has spin as a good quantum number, and the long-wavelength spin edge excitations are gapped. In phase B, spin rotation symmetry is spontaneously broken at the mean-field level. Using symmetry arguments we find the effective theory near the interface of phase B. This effective theory is known to have gapless long-wavelength spin excitations. In the second project, we study the ground state of a tunnel-decoupled double-layer graphene system when both layers are undoped. We find a simple Hamiltonian in the continuum limit from symmetries of the system. Using the Hartree-Fock approximation we find a state with inter-layer coherence with broken layer U(1) symmetry. This phase becomes magnetized in presence of a non-zero Zeeman field. A first-order phase transition can be driven from the ferromagnetic phase to the magnetized inter-layer coherent phase by increasing the Zeeman field. We predict the number of gapless modes in the bulk.

The magnetic properties of a two-dimensional interacting electron system in a strong magnetic field are considered in the quantum Hall regime, where the motion of the electrons is restricted to the lowest Landau level. We apply an approach based on the many-particle quantum-field theory which we developed recently for the spin-polarized system in the fractional quantum Hall regime, and which treats the problem of the degeneracy of a partially filled Landau level properly. Via a gauge transformation of the fermion Green's function, we achieve a dressing of the propagator with multiple collective excitations. Our theory allows a calculation of the magnetic polarization

M(T)

for higher temperatures

T

, where $M(T)\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.4$ is not too large. For filling factor $\ensuremath{\nu}=1$ we obtain a magnetic polarization

M(T)

which agrees quite well with the data of a NMR experiment by Barrett [Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 5112 (1995)].

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.

The Hamiltonian describing interacting two-dimensional electrons in a high magnetic field is diagonalized numerically for a small number of particles to obtain the low-lying excitation spectra. The results include estimates of energy gaps for values of $\ensuremath{\nu}$ (the lowest-Landau-level filling factor) equal to certain multiples of

\frac{1}{5}

,

\frac{1}{7}

,

\frac{1}{9}

, and

\frac{1}{11}

. These $\ensuremath{\nu}'\mathrm{s}$ are characterized by the existence of periodic rigid parent states which generate maximum phase space. The even-denominator cases are markedly different.

The eigenstates of interacting electrons in the fractional quantum Hall phase typically form fairly well-defined bands in the energy space. We study systems of six and eight electrons for filling factor 3/7>\ensuremath{\nu}> 2) / 7 and show that composite fermion theory gives insight into the origin of these bands and provides an accurate and complete microscopic description of the strongly correlated many-body states in the low-energy bands. This implies that, somewhat like in Landau's Fermi liquid theory, there is a one-to-one analogy between the low-energy Hilbert space of strongly interacting electrons in the fractional quantum Hall effect and that of weakly interacting electrons in the integer quantum Hall effect.