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Acta Physica Polonica A

Composite Fermion Description of the Excitations of the Paired Pfaffian Fractional Quantum Hall State

Arkadiusz Wójs, G. J. Sreejith, Gunnar Möller, Csaba Tőke, Jainendra K. Jain

Published Nov 1, 2011• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We review the recently developed bipartite composite fermion model for the excitations of the so-called Pfaffian state, a promising model for the fractional quantum Hall effect at the Landau level filling factor ν = 5/2.In particular, we demonstrate a necessary ingredient of the non-Abelian braid statistics, namely the degeneracy of spatially indistinguishable configurations of widely separated quasiparticles.

DOI
10.12693/aphyspola.120.830

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Csaba Tőke, Jainendra K. Jain

It is demonstrated that an understanding of the 5/2 fractional quantum Hall effect can be achieved within the composite fermion theory without appealing to the Pfaffian wave function. The residual interaction between composite fermions plays a crucial role in establishing incompressibility at this filling factor. This approach has the advantage of being amenable to systematic perturbative improvements, and produces ground as well as excited states. It, however, does not relate to non-Abelian statistics in any obvious manner.

arXiv:cond-mat/0606610•Physical Review Letters•Jun 22, 2006•34 citations
We review the recently developed bipartite composite fermion model for the excitations of the so-called Pfaffian state, a promising model for the fractional quantum Hall effect at the Landau level filling factor ν = 5/2.In particular, we demonstrate a necessary ingredient of the non-Abelian braid statistics, namely the degeneracy of spatially indistinguishable configurations of widely separated quasiparticles.
Pairing of composite fermions provides a possible mechanism for fractional quantum Hall effect at even denominator fractions and is believed to serve as a platform for realizing quasiparticles with non-Abelian braiding statistics. We present results from fixed-phase diffusion Monte Carlo calculations which predict that substantial Landau level mixing can induce a pairing of composite fermions at filling factors ν=1/2 and ν=1/4 in the l=-3 relative angular momentum channel, thereby destabilizing the composite-fermion Fermi seas to produce non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall states.
In this review, the physics of Pfaffian paired states, in the context of fractional quantum Hall effect, is discussed using field-theoretical approaches. The Pfaffian states are prime examples of topological ([Formula: see text]-wave) Cooper pairing and are characterized by non-Abelian statistics of their quasiparticles. Here we focus on conditions for their realization and competition among them at half-integer filling factors. Using the Dirac composite fermion description, in the presence of a mass term, we study the influence of Landau level mixing in selecting a particular Pfaffian state. While Pfaffian and anti-Pfaffian are selected when Landau level mixing is not strong, and can be taken into account perturbatively, the particle–hole (PH) Pfaffian state requires non-perturbative inclusion of at least two Landau levels. Our findings, for small Landau level mixing, are in accordance with numerical investigations in the literature, and call for a non-perturbative approach in the search for PH Pfaffian correlations. We demonstrated that a method based on the Chern–Simons field-theoretical approach can be used to generate characteristic interaction pseudo-potentials for Pfaffian paired states.
The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) observed at half filling of the second Landau level is believed to be caused by a pairing of composite fermions captured by the Moore-Read Pfaffian wave function. The generating Hamiltonian for the Moore-Read Pfaffian is a purely three-body model that breaks particle-hole symmetry and lacks other properties, such as dominate two-body repulsive interactions, expected from a physical model of the FQHE. We use exact diagonalization to study the low-energy states of a more physical two-body generator model derived from the three-body model. We find that the two-body model exhibits the essential features expected from the Moore-Read Pfaffian: pairing, non-Abelian anyon excitations, and a neutral fermion mode. The model also satisfies constraints expected for a physical model of the FQHE at half-filling because it is short range, spatially decaying, particle-hole symmetric, and supports a roton mode with a robust spectral gap in the thermodynamic limit. Hence, this two-body model offers a bridge between artificial three-body generator models for paired states and the physical Coulomb interaction and can be used to further explore properties of non-Abelian physics in the FQHE.
There is increasing experimental evidence for fractional quantum Hall effect at filling factor $\ensuremath{\nu}=2+3/8$. Modeling it as a system of composite fermions, we study the problem of interacting composite fermions by a number of methods. In our variational study, we consider the Fermi sea, the Pfaffian paired state, and bubble and stripe phases of composite fermions, and find that the Fermi sea state is favored for a wide range of transverse thickness. However, when we incorporate interactions between composite fermions through composite-fermion diagonalization on systems with up to 25 composite fermions, we find that a gap opens at the Fermi level, suggesting that inter-composite fermion interaction can induce fractional quantum Hall effect at $\ensuremath{\nu}=2+3/8$. The resulting state is seen to be distinct from the Pfaffian wave function.
Materials exhibiting exotic quantum phenomena at a macroscopic level are of great interest because of its intrinsic value to Physics, and also because of its potential applications in technology. Strongly correlated electronic systems form interesting examples of these. Exploring them calls for a good understanding of its physics, and development of new tools that are applicable to their analysis. Robustness of the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) makes it an ideal stage to study strongly correlated electron systems. The complexity of the FQHE problem stems directly from the strong interactions between the constituent particles and not from the specific nature of the material it is implemented in. This work attempts to gain a theoretical description of some of the less understood aspects of FQHE. FQHE in the lowest Landau level is well understood using the theory of weakly interacting emergent particles called composite fermions. Composite fermions formed in the second Landau level however appear to be strongly interacting. Of particular interest is the FQHE at 2 + 1/2 filling fraction, where the many body ground state is believed to be described by a paired state of composite fermions, represented by the Pfaffian wavefunction. Based on predicted properties of its excitations, there has been proposals for implementing topological quantum com- putations in this system. However a good understanding of the nature of these excitations is still lacking. This thesis introduces a class of many body wavefunctions called “bipartite composite fermion states” that provide a unified description of all excitations of the paired state at 5/2. In the bipartite composite fermion (BCF) picture, constituent composite fermions split into two partitions which are correlated to each other. Within each partition, they fill the lowest composite fermion Landau level of its partition. Properties of the BCF state can now be related to the properties of the individual partitions, which are well understood in terms of the composite fermion theory. In particular, we show that the excitations of BCF states are obtained by creating excitations in the individual partitions. The paired state with odd number of composite fermions should have an unpaired composite fermion. The BCF model predicts that this unpaired composite fermion behaves as an exciton in the quasiparticle and quasihole are in separate partitions. We confirm this prediction numerically in finite size systems. Generalizations of bipartite composite fermion functions to other filling fractions especially 2 + 4/7 and 2 + 3/5 are also studied. Idea of bipartite composite fermions can be generalized to the case of more partitions. Specifically, we look at tripartite composite fermion states which are similar to the bipartite states, except that these have three correlated partitions instead of two. Tripartite states have a filling fraction of ν = 3/5, and its particle hole conjugate is a candidate wavefunction for describing the ν = 2 + 2/5…
It is demonstrated that an understanding of the 5/2 fractional quantum Hall effect can be achieved within the composite fermion theory without appealing to the Pfaffian wave function. The residual interaction between composite fermions plays a crucial role in establishing incompressibility at this filling factor. This approach has the advantage of being amenable to systematic perturbative improvements, and produces ground as well as excited states. It, however, does not relate to non-Abelian statistics in any obvious manner.