MPS of unitary and non-unitary fractional quantum Hall wavefunctions

Nicolas Regnault, Benoit Estienne, Zlatko Papić +1 more

Bo Yang, F. D. M. Haldane, Zi-Xiang Hu +1 more

Abednour Laidi

Master's thesis in Theoretical Physics. The official university title is "Fractional Quantum Hall Effect: Current State and Perspectives"; this record uses the author's preferred, more descriptive title. This thesis develops a unified description of the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) and topological order through three complementary frameworks: microscopic trial many-body wavefunctions, the algebraic theory of anyons and unitary modular tensor categories, and Chern-Simons effective field theory. The first part covers the physical foundations—Landau quantization, the TKNN invariant, Laughlin's wavefunctions, the hierarchy and composite fermion theories, and some non-Abelian states like the Moore-Read Pfaffian state. The second part develops the algebraic theory of anyons, from the braid group to fusion rules, quantum dimensions, topological spins, and the F- and R-matrices that characterize a unitary modular tensor category. The third part constructs the Chern-Simons effective field theory, deriving fractional charge, statistics, and ground-state degeneracy, unifying Abelian states via the K-matrix formalism, and then generalizing to non-Abelian states through 𝑈(1)ₘ × 𝑆𝑈(𝑁)ₖ Chern-Simons theory. The central result is that Chern–Simons theory provides a field-theoretic realization of the topological order introduced microscopically and algebraically in the earlier chapters, closing the circle between the three descriptions and providing a unified framework for the FQHE and topological order and anyon's physics.

Benoit Estienne, Nicolas Regnault, Bogdan Andrei Bernevig

Using the newly developed matrix product state formalism for non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states, we address the question of whether a FQH trial wave function written as a correlation function in a nonunitary conformal field theory (CFT) can describe the bulk of a gapped FQH phase. We show that the nonunitary Gaffnian state exhibits clear signatures of a pathological behavior. As a benchmark we compute the correlation length of a Moore-Read state and find it to be finite in the thermodynamic limit. By contrast, the Gaffnian state has an infinite correlation length in (at least) the non-Abelian sector, and is therefore gapless. We also compute the topological entanglement entropy of several non-Abelian states with and without quasiholes. For the first time in the FQH effect the results are in excellent agreement in all topological sectors with the CFT prediction for unitary states. For the nonunitary Gaffnian state in finite size systems, the topological entanglement entropy seems to behave like that of the composite fermion Jain state at equal filling.

Nicolas Regnault

Matheus Schossler, Sumanta Bandyopadhyay, Alexander Seidel

We study frustration free Hamiltonians of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states from the point of view of the matrix-product-state (MPS) representation of their ground and excited states. There is a wealth of solvable models relating to FQH physics, which, however, is mostly derived and analyzed from vantage point of first quantized analytic clustering properties. In contrast, one obtains long-ranged frustration free lattice models when these Hamiltonians are studied in an orbital basis, which is the natural basis for the MPS representation of FQH states. The connection between MPS-like states and frustration free parent Hamiltonians is the central guiding principle in the construction of solvable lattice models, but thus far, only for short range Hamiltonians and MPS of finite bond dimension. The situation in the FQH context is fundamentally different. Here we expose the direct link between the infinite-bond-dimension MPS structure of Laughlin-CFT states and their parent Hamiltonians. While focussing on the Laughlin state, generalizations to other CFT-MPS will become transparent.