We consider the trial wavefunctions for the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect (FQHE) that are given by conformal blocks, and construct their associated edge excited states in full generality. The inner products between these edge states are computed in
the thermodynamic limit, assuming generalized screening (i.e. short-range correlations only) inside the quantum Hall droplet, and using the language of boundary conformal field theory (boundary CFT). These inner products take universal values in this limit: they are equal to the corresponding inner products in the bulk 2d chiral CFT which underlies the trial wavefunction. This is a bulk/edge correspondence; it shows the equality between equal-time correlators along the edge and the correlators of the bulk CFT up to a Wick rotation. This approach is then used to analyze the entanglement spectrum (ES) of the ground state obtained with a bipartition AcupB in real-space. Starting from our universal result for inner products in the thermodynamic limit, we tackle corrections to scaling using standard field-theoretic and renormalization group arguments. We prove that generalized screening implies that the entanglement Hamiltonian H_E = - log {rho}_A is isospectral to an operator that is local along the cut between A and B. We also show that a similar analysis can be carried out for particle partition. We discuss the close analogy between the formalism of trial wavefunctions given by conformal blocks and Tensor Product States, for which results analogous to ours have appeared recently. Finally, the edge theory and entanglement spectrum of px + ipy paired superfluids are treated in a similar fashion in the appendix.
It was recently pointed out that topological liquid phases arising in the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) are not required to be rotationally invariant, as most variational wavefunctions proposed to date have been. Instead, they possess a geome
tric degree of freedom corresponding to a shear deformation that acts like an intrinsic metric. We apply this idea to a system with an anisotropic band mass, as is intrinsically the case in many-valley semiconductors such as AlAs and Si, or in isotropic systems like GaAs in the presence of a tilted magnetic field, which breaks the rotational invariance. We perform exact diagonalization calculations with periodic boundary conditions (torus geometry) for various filling fractions in the lowest, first and second Landau levels. In the lowest Landau level, we demonstrate that FQHE states generally survive the breakdown of rotational invariance by moderate values of the band mass anisotropy. At 1/3 filling, we generate a variational family of Laughlin wavefunctions parametrized by the metric degree of freedom. We show that the intrinsic metric of the Laughlin state adjusts as the band mass anisotropy or the dielectric tensor are varied, while the phase remains robust. In the n=1 Landau level, mass anisotropy drives transitions between incompressible liquids and compressible states with charge density wave ordering. In n>=2 Landau levels, mass anisotropy selects and enhances stripe ordering with compatible wave vectors at partial 1/3 and 1/2 fillings.
There is a close analogy between the response of a quantum Hall liquid (QHL) to a small change in the electron density and the response of a superconductor to an externally applied magnetic flux - an analogy which is made concrete in the Chern-Simons
Landau-Ginzburg (CSLG) formulation of the problem. As the Types of superconductor are distinguished by this response, so too for QHLs: a typology can be introduced which is, however, richer than that in superconductors owing to the lack of any time-reversal symmetry relating positive and negative fluxes. At the boundary between Type I and Type II behavior, the CSLG action has a Bogomolnyi point, where the quasi-holes (vortices) are non-interacting - at the microscopic level, this corresponds to the behavior of systems governed by a set of model Hamiltonians which have been constructed to render exact a large class of QHL wavefunctions. All Types of QHLs are capable of giving rise to quantized Hall plateaux.
Significant insights into non-Abelian quantum Hall states were obtained from studying special multi-particle interaction Hamiltonians, whose unique ground states are the Moore-Read and Read-Rezayi states for the case of spinless electrons. We general
ize this approach to include the electronic spin-1/2 degree of freedom. We demonstrate that in the absence of Zeeman splitting the ground states of such Hamiltonians have large degeneracies and very rich spin structures. The spin structure of the ground states and low-energy excitations can be understood based on an emergent SU(3) symmetry for the case corresponding to the Moore-Read state. These states with different spin quantum numbers represent non-Abelian quantum Hall states with different magnetizations, whose quasi-hole properties are likely to be similar to those of their spin polarized counterparts.
We present a comprehensive numerical study of a microscopic model of the fractional quantum Hall system at filling fraction $ u = 5/2$, based on the disc geometry. Our model includes Coulomb interaction and a semi-realistic confining potential. We al
so mix in some three-body interaction in some cases to help elucidate the physics. We obtain a phase diagram, discuss the conditions under which the ground state can be described by the Moore-Read state, and study its competition with neighboring stripe phases. We also study quasihole excitations and edge excitations in the Moore-Read--like state. From the evolution of edge spectrum, we obtain the velocities of the charge and neutral edge modes, which turn out to be very different. This separation of velocities is a source of decoherence for a non-Abelian quasihole/quasiparticle (with charge $pm e/4$) when propagating at the edge; using numbers obtained from a specific set of parameters we estimate the decoherence length to be around four microns. This sets an upper bound for the separation of the two point contacts in a double point contact interferometer, designed to detect the non-Abelian nature of such quasiparticles. We also find a state that is a potential candidate for the recently proposed anti-Pfaffian state. We find the speculated anti-Pfaffian state is favored in weak confinement (smooth edge) while the Moore-Read Pfaffian state is favored in strong confinement (sharp edge).
In bilayer quantum Hall systems at filling fractions near nu=1/2+1/2, as the spacing d between the layers is continuously decreased, intra-layer correlations must be replaced by inter-layer correlations, and the composite fermion (CF) Fermi seas at l
arge d must eventually be replaced by a composite boson (CB) condensate or 111 state at small d. We propose a scenario where CBs and CFs coexist in two interpenetrating fluids in the transition. Trial wavefunctions describing these mixed CB-CF states compare very favorably with exact diagonalization results. A Chern-Simons transport theory is constructed that is compatible with experiment.
