School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0430(Dated: 19 February 2009)Through the introduction of a class of appropriate translationally invariant trial wave functions,we show that the strong correlations in the lowest Landau level (LLL) reflect in finite systems theemergence of intrinsic point-group symmetries associated with rotations and vibrations of moleculesformed through particle localization. This quantal molecular description is universal, being valid forboth bosons and fermions, for both the yrast and excited states of the LLL spectra, and for bothlow and high angular momenta. ”Quantum-fluid” physical pictures associated with Jastrow-typetrial functions are shown to be reducible to the molecular description introduced in this paper.
School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0430(Dated: 19 February 2009)Through the introduction of a class of appropriate translationally invariant trial wave functions,we show that the strong correlations in the lowest Landau level (LLL) reflect in finite systems theemergence of intrinsic point-group symmetries associated with rotations and vibrations of moleculesformed through particle localization. This quantal molecular description is universal, being valid forboth bosons and fermions, for both the yrast and excited states of the LLL spectra, and for bothlow and high angular momenta. ”Quantum-fluid” physical pictures associated with Jastrow-typetrial functions are shown to be reducible to the molecular description introduced in this paper.
Through the introduction of a class of appropriate translationally invariant trial wave functions, we show that the strong correlations in the lowest Landau level (LLL) reflect in finite systems the emergence of intrinsic point-group symmetries associated with rotations and vibrations of molecules formed through particle localization. This molecular description is universal, being valid for both bosons and fermions, for both the yrast and excited states of the LLL spectra, and for both low and high angular momenta. This physical picture is fundamentally different from the "quantum-fluid" one associated with Jastrow-type trial functions.
Through the introduction of a class of trial wave functions portraying combined rotations and vibrations of molecules formed through particle localization in concentric polygonal rings, a correlated basis is constructed that spans the translationally invariant part of the lowest-Landau-level (LLL) spectra. These trial functions, referred to as rovibrational molecular (RVM) functions, generalize our previous work that focused exclusively on electronic cusp states, describing them as pure vibrationless rotations. From a computational viewpoint, the RVM correlated basis enables controlled and systematic improvements of the original strongly correlated variational wave function. Conceptually, it provides the basis for the development of a quantal molecular description for the full LLL spectra. This quantal molecular description is universal, being valid for both bosons and fermions, for both the yrast and excited states of the LLL spectra, and for both low and high angular momenta. Furthermore, it follows that all other translationally invariant trial functions (e.g., the Jastrow-Laughlin, compact composite-fermion, or Moore-Read functions) are reducible to a description in terms of an excited rotating and vibrating quantal molecule.
Exploring strongly correlated spinful states of few fermionic ultracold atoms in a rapidly rotating trap, an example of which was recently realized for two fermionic 6Li atoms in an optical tweezer, we derive analytical (algebraic) total-spin-eigenstate wavefunctions through the development and employment of a theoretical platform that integrates exact numerical diagonalization (full configuration interaction, FCI) with symbolic language processing. For such rapid rotations, where the atoms occupy the lowest Landau level (LLL), the obtained algebraic expressions can address the full LLL spectrum in all its complexity, demonstrating that their spatial, spectral, and spin characteristics manifest formation of collectively rotating and vibrating Wigner molecules. The explicitly exhibited analytic wavefunctions (for two and three spinful 6Li atoms) reproduce precisely the corresponding numerical FCI results, and they are shown to reach beyond the limited range of applicability of previous Jastrow-type treatments. These results, and their extension to bosonic systems, provide the impetus and analysis tools for future experimental and theoretical simulations of larger mesoscopic systems
Investigations of emergent symmetry breaking phenomena occurring in small finite-size systems are reviewed, with a focus on the strongly correlated regime of electrons in two-dimensional semiconductor quantum dots and trapped ultracold bosonic atoms in harmonic traps. Throughout the review we emphasize universal aspects and similarities of symmetry breaking found in these systems, as well as in more traditional fields like nuclear physics and quantum chemistry, which are characterized by very different interparticle forces. A unified description of strongly correlated phenomena in finite systems of repelling particles (whether fermions or bosons) is presented through the development of a two-step method of symmetry breaking at the unrestricted Hartree-Fock level and of subsequent symmetry restoration via post Hartree-Fock projection techniques. Quantitative and qualitative aspects of the two-step method are treated and validated by exact diagonalization calculations.Strongly-correlated phenomena emerging from symmetry breaking include the following.Chemical bonding, dissociation and entanglement (at zero and finite magnetic fields) in quantum dot molecules and in pinned electron molecular dimers formed within a single anisotropic quantum dot, with potential technological applications to solid-state quantum-computing devices.Electron crystallization, with particle localization on the vertices of concentric polygonal rings, and formation of rotating electron molecules (REMs) in circular quantum dots. Such electron molecules exhibit ro-vibrational excitation spectra, in analogy with natural molecules.At high magnetic fields, the REMs are described by parameter-free analytic wave functions, which are an alternative to the Laughlin and composite-fermion approaches, offering a new point of view of the fractional quantum Hall regime in quantum dots (with possible implications for the thermodynamic limit).Crystalline phases of strongly repelling bosons. In rotating traps and in analogy with the REMs, such repelling bosons form rotating boson molecules (RBMs). For a small number of bosons, the RBMs are energetically favored compared with the Gross-Pitaevskii solutions describing vortex formation.We discuss the present status concerning experimental signatures of such strongly correlated states, in view of the promising outlook created by the latest experimental improvements that are achieving unprecedented control over the range and strength of interparticle interactions.
We present results for the ground states of a system of spin-1 bosons in a rotating trap. We focus on the dilute, weakly interacting regime, and restrict the bosons to the quantum states in the lowest Landau level (LLL) in the plane (disk), sphere, or torus geometries. We map out parts of the zero-temperature phase diagram, using both exact quantum ground states and LLL mean-field configurations. For the case of a spin-independent interaction we present exact quantum ground states at angular momentum L<N. For general values of the interaction parameters, we present mean-field studies of general ground states at slow rotation and of lattices of vortices and skyrmions at higher rotation rates. Finally, we discuss quantum Hall liquid states at ultrahigh rotation.
Intermediate statistics interpolating from Bose statistics to Fermi statistics are allowed in two dimensions. This is due to the particular topology of the two dimensional configuration space of identical particles, leading to non trivial braiding of particles around each other. One arrives at quantum many-body states with a multivalued phase factor, which encodes the any- onic nature of particle windings. Bosons and fermions appear as two limiting cases. Gauging away the phase leads to the so-called anyon model, where the charge of each particle interacts “à la Aharonov-Bohm” with the fluxes carried by the other particles. The multivaluedness of the wave function has been traded off for topological interactions between ordinary particles. An alternative Lagrangian formulation uses a topological Chern-Simons term in 2+1 dimensions. Taking into account the short distance repulsion between particles leads to an Hamiltonian well defined in perturbation theory, where all perturbative divergences have disappeared. Together with numerical and semi-classical studies, perturbation theory is a basic analytical tool at disposal to study the model, since finding the exact N-body spectrum seems out of reach (except in the 2-body case which is solvable, or for particular classes of N-body eigenstates which generalize some 2-body eigenstates). However, a simplification arises when the anyons are coupled to an external homogeneous magnetic field. In the case of a strong field, by projecting the system on its lowest Landau level (LLL, thus the LLL-anyon model), the anyon model becomes solvable, i.e., the classes of exact eigenstates alluded to above provide for a complete interpolation from the LLL-Bose spectrum to the LLL-Fermi spectrum. Being a solvable model allows for an explicit knowledge of the equation of state and of the mean occupation number in the LLL, which do interpolate from the Bose to the Fermi cases. It also provides for a combinatorial interpretation of LLL-anyon braiding statistics in terms of occupation of single particle states. The LLL-anyon model might also be relevant experimentally: a gas of electrons in a strong magnetic field is known to exhibit a quantized Hall conductance, leading to the integer and fractional quantum Hall effects. Haldane/exclusion statistics, introduced to describe FQHE edge excitations, is a priori different from anyon statistics, since it is not defined by braiding considerations, but rather by counting arguments in the space of available states. However, it has been shown to lead to the same kind of thermodynamics as the LLL-anyon thermodynamics (or, in other words, the LLL-anyon model is a microscopic quantum mechanical realization of Hal- dane’s statistics). The one dimensional Calogero model is also shown to have the same kind of thermodynamics as the LLL-anyons thermodynamics. This is not a coincidence: the LLL-anyon model and the Calogero model are intimately related, the latter being a particular limit of the former. Finally, on the purely combinatorial side, the minimal difference partition problem — partition of integers with minimal difference constraints on their parts — can also be mapped on an abstract exclusion statistics model with a constant one-body density of states, which is neither the LLL-anyon model nor the Calogero model. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.