The quantum Hall effect is one of the most challenging problems in condensed matter physics in which many rare physical phenomena like fractional charges and generally the fractional statistics are involved. In the integer quantum Hall effect the role of the disorder is more than others. The important point in describing these systems is that their bulk states should be gapful and in this sense the system should be incompressible. For describing the electron condensates in an arbitrary filling fraction with the odd denominator one needs the topological U(1) Chern-Simons effective field theory. Our motivation for using these field theories is the emergence of quantized conductivity. This effective field theory also has the ability of constructing the hierarchical fractional condensates with various filling factors. The excitations of these theories have fractional statistics which are investigated in this review. The non-Abelian Chern-Simons for quantum Hall systems will be also investigated. The interesting point is that the edge states of these systems are gapless and their excitations are equipped with the Kac-Moody algebra. The connection to the conformal field theories can be established using this point. The investigation of this correspondence is one of the aims of the present thesis. The connection to the logarithmic conformal field theories (e.g. for the Haldane-Rezaei wave function) is also reported in some works which will be addressed in this thesis.
The quantum Hall effect is one of the most challenging problems in condensed matter physics in which many rare physical phenomena like fractional charges and generally the fractional statistics are involved. In the integer quantum Hall effect the role of the disorder is more than others. The important point in describing these systems is that their bulk states should be gapful and in this sense the system should be incompressible. For describing the electron condensates in an arbitrary filling fraction with the odd denominator one needs the topological U(1) Chern-Simons effective field theory. Our motivation for using these field theories is the emergence of quantized conductivity. This effective field theory also has the ability of constructing the hierarchical fractional condensates with various filling factors. The excitations of these theories have fractional statistics which are investigated in this review. The non-Abelian Chern-Simons for quantum Hall systems will be also investigated. The interesting point is that the edge states of these systems are gapless and their excitations are equipped with the Kac-Moody algebra. The connection to the conformal field theories can be established using this point. The investigation of this correspondence is one of the aims of the present thesis. The connection to the logarithmic conformal field theories (e.g. for the Haldane-Rezaei wave function) is also reported in some works which will be addressed in this thesis.
The subject of this work is the application of conformal field theory in the fractional quantum Hall effect. The fractional quantum Hall effect is observed in a two-dimensional electron gas in a strong perpendicular magnetic field and at low temperature. The electron system forms a strongly correlated quantum liquid and exhibits the exact quantization of the Hall conductivity in to a fractional value vet/h, where v is the fractional filling fraction of Landau-levels in the system. In addition, the elementary excitations of the electron fluid have fractional charge and fractional statistics of anyons. First, we review the basic of two-dimensional conformal field theory and show how certain conformal quantum field theories can be solved non-perturbatively by using the representation theory of conformal symmetries. The low-energy effective field theory in the bulk of a fractional quantum Hall state is known to be a 2+1 dimensional topological field theory. The states of the topological quantum field theory are directly connected to the holomorphic correlation functions of an equivalent two-dimensional conformal field theory. It is known that the gapless excitations at the boundary of the quantum Hall state are described by the same conformal field theory. By using this connection, the so-called Laughlin and Moore-Read states are derived in detail using conformal field theory. The fractional charge and statistics of the quasiparticle excitations in these states are obtained from the conformal field theory description. Furthermore, the non-Abelian statistics of the Moore-Read states are verified explicitly from the quasiparticle wave functions. We argue how the different fractional quantum Hall phases of matter are described by the quantum numbers obtained using conformal field theory. Lastly, we study model interactions that have the Laughlin v = 1/3 and the Moore-Read v = 1/2 states as exact ground states. We compute the matrix elements of these interactions and diagonalize the Hamiltonian matrix in the disk geometry for both states. The low-energy edge excitations of these states are studied in the finite geometry and we verify that they are in accordance with the conformal field theory on the boundary. By creating a localized density disturbance in the system, we create the e/4 quasiparticle of the Moore-Read state, and by studying the properties of the edge theory it is seen that quasiparticle has the same properties as the non-Abelian quasihole in the conformal field theory. The obtained results verify the correspondence between the bulk state and the boundary conformal field theory at the edge in the fractional quantum Hall states in question.
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.
Abstract The book presents the wide range of topics in two-dimensional physics of quantum Hall systems, especially fractional quantum Hall states. It starts with the fundamental problems of quantum statistics in two dimensions and the corresponding braid group formalism. The braid group formalism of anyons (previously known) is developed for composite fermions. The effective formalism used in many-body quantum Hall theories — the Chern–Simons theory is also presented. The Chern–Simons theory of anyons (particles obeying fractional statistics) and composite fermions (related to Hall systems) is given, in detail. Numerical studies, which play the important role in quantum Hall analyses, are presented for spherical systems (Haldane sphere). The composite fermion theory is tested in numerical studies. The concept of the hierarchy of condensed states of composite fermion excitations is introduced (in analogy to the Haldane hierarchy). The hierarchies of odd-denominator states and even-denominator states are presented. The BCS paired Hall state is also discussed. An introduction to multi-component quantum Hall systems and spin quantum Hall systems is sketched.
A core tenet of condensed matter physics has been that different phases of matter can be classified according to Landau's symmetry breaking paradigm. It has become clear, however, that phases of matter exist that are not distinguished by symmetry, but rather by topology. A paradigmatic example of this topological order are the fractional quantum Hall phases, which are the topic of this dissertation. Such phases exhibit the fractional quantum Hall effect, which occurs when electrons confined to two dimensions are subjected to a strong perpendicular magnetic field at very low temperatures. Characterized by a precise quantization of the Hall resistance and a concomitant vanishing of the longitudinal resistance, the fractional quantum Hall effect results from the formation of a strongly correlated quantum liquid of electrons. This quantum liquid supports remarkable quasiparticle excitations, which carry a fractional charge and are thought to obey fractional statistics beyond the familiar Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics. The theoretical understanding of the topological orders realized by the fractional quantum Hall states has progressed by the proposal of explicit trial wave functions as well as various types of effective field theories. This dissertation focuses on two series of trial wave functions, abelian and non-abelian hierarchy wave functions. We study the non-abelian hierarchy wave functions using conformal field theory techniques, by means of which the associated topological properties are studied. These include the fractional charges of the quasiparticles and their non-abelian fractional statistics. In addition, we study abelian hierarchy wave functions using effective Ginzburg-Landau theories in a way that connects to their known conformal field theory description.
Laughlin's quantum Hall wave function is obtained as an exact ground state of an N-particle Hamiltonian, in which the electrons themselves are coupled to the Chern-Simons field. The proof requires quantum field-theoretic methods in the Schr\"odinger picture, and clearly exhibits the relation to conformal field theory since the Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov connection shows up and the Laughlin ground state is recognized as a conformal block. A refined version of this approach can be applied for toroidal boundary conditions, i.e., the electrons are confined to the physical interior of the Hall sample. The result turns out to be a nontrivial modification of the p-fold degenerate Haldane-Rezayi wave function. Furthermore, it is shown that the degeneracy of the ground state is accounted for by the quantum group Uq(su2) with deformation parameter $q=\mathrm{exp}(2\ensuremath{\pi}i/p)$ and p odd; put differently, the possible quantum numbers p of the quantum Hall effect, determining the filling fractions $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/p,$ can be explained by an underlying quantum symmetry.
The book presents the wide range of topics in two-dimensional physics of quantum Hall systems, especially fractional quantum Hall states. It starts with the fundamental problems of quantum statistics in two dimensions and the corresponding braid group formalism. The braid group formalism of anyons (previously known) is developed for composite fermions. The main formalism used in many-body quantum Hall theories -- the Chern-Simons theory is also presented. The Chern-Simons theory of anyons (particles obeying fractional statistics) and composite fermions (related to Hall systems) is given, in detail. Numerical studies, which play the important role in quantum Hall theories, are presented for spherical systems (Haldane sphere). The composite fermion theory is tested in numerical studies. The concept of the hierarchy of condensed states of composite fermion excitations is introduced (in analogy to the Haldane hierarchy)1). The hierarchies of odd-denominator states and even-denominator states are presented. The BCS paired Hall state is also discussed. The introduction into multi-component quantum Hall systems and spin quantum Hall systems is sketched. 1)First condensed states of composite fermion excitations have been very recently confirmed in the experiment (Pan et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 (2003) 016801). a sample of this book is available at http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-852870-1