Abstract
Incompressible Quantum Hall fluids (QHF's) can be described in the scaling limit by three-dimensional topological field theories. Thanks to the correspondence between three-dimensional topological field theories and two dimensional chiral conformal field theories (CCFT's), we propose to study QHF's from the point of view of CCFT's. We derive consistency conditions and stability criteria for those CCFT's that can be expected to describe a QHF. A general algorithm is presented which uses simple currents to construct interesting examples of such CCFT's. It generalizes the description of QHF's in terms of Quantum Hall lattices. Explicit examples, based on the coset construction, provide candidates for the description of Quantum Hall fluids with Hall conductivity σH=1/2(e2/h), 1/4(e2/h), 3/5(e2/h), (e2/h),... .
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
K. von Klitzing, G. Dorda, and N. Pepper, New method for high-accuracy determination of the fine structure constant based on quantized Hall resistance, Phys. Rev. Lett. 45:484 (1980).
D. C. Tsui, H. L. Störmer, and A. C. Gossard, Two-dimensional magnetotransport in the Extreme Quantum Limit, Phys. Rev. B 48:1559 (1982).
R. B. Laughlin, Quantized Hall conductivity in two dimensions, Phys. Rev. B 23:5632 (1981).
R. B. Laughlin, Anomalous Quantum Hall effect: An incompressible Quantum Fluid with fractionally charged excitations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 50:1395 (1983); Quantized motion of three two-dimensional electrons in a strong magnetic field, Phys. Rev. B 27:3383 (1983); Primitive and composite ground states in the factional Quantum Hall effect, Surf. Sci. 142:163 (1984).
D. Arovas, J. R. Schrieffer, and F. Wilczek, Fractional statistics and the Quantum Hall effect, Phys. Rev. Lett. 53:722 (1984).
R. E. Prange and S. M. Girvin (eds.), The Quantum Hall Effect, Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics (Springer Verlag, New York 1990).
B. I. Halperin, Quantized Hall conductance, current-carrying edge states, and the existence of extended states in a two-dimensional disordered potential, Phys. Rev. B 25:2185 (1982).
M. Büttiker, Absence of backscattering in the quantum Hall effect in multiprobe conductors, Phys. Rev. B 38:9375 (1988).
C. W. Beenaker, Edge channels for the fractional Quantum Hall effect, Phys. Rev. Lett. 64:216 (1990).
A. H. Macdonald, Edge states in the fractional Quantum Hall regime, Phys. Rev. Lett. 64:220 (1990); F. D. M. Haldane, Edge states and boundary fluctuations in the Quantum Hall fluid, Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 35:254 (1990).
X. G. Wen, Vacuum degeneracy of chiral spin states in compactified space, Phys. Rev. B 40:7387 (1989); Topological orders in rigid states, Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 4:239 (1990); Chiral Luttinger liquid and the edge excitations in the fractional quantum Hall states, Phys. Rev. B 41:12838 (1990).
J. Fröhlich and T. Kerler, Universality in Quantum Hall systems, Nucl. Phys. B 354:369 (1991).
M. Stone, Vertex operators in the Quantum Hall effect, Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 5:509 (1991); A. V. Balatsky and M. Stone, Vertex operators and spinon edge excitations in the spin-singlet quantum Hall effect, Phys. Rev. B 43:8038 (1991).
J. Fröhlich and A. Zee, Large scale physics of the Quantum Hall fluid, Nucl. Phys. B 364:517 (1991).
X. G. Wen, Gapless boundary excitations in quantum Hall states and in the chiral spin states, Phys. Rev. B 43:11025 (1991).
D. Bigatti and L. Susskind, TASI Lectures on the Holographic Principle, preprint hep-th/0002044, and references given there.
E. Witten, Quantum field theory and the Jones polynomial, Commun. Math. Phys. 121:351 (1989).
J. Frölich and C. King, Two-dimensional conformal field theory and three-dimensional topology, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 4:5328 (1989).
D. H. Lee and S. C. Zhang, Collective excitations in the Ginzburg-Landau theory of the fractional Quantum Hall effect, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66:1220 (1991).
R. H. Morf and N. d'Ambrumenil, Stability and effective masses of composite fermions in the first and second Landau level, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74:5116 (1995); R. H. Morf, Transition from Quantum Hall to compressible states in the second Landau level: New light on the v=5/2 enigma, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80:1505 (1998).
J. Fröhlich and E. Thiran, Integral quadratic forms, Kac-Moody algebras, and fractional Quantum Hall effect. An ADE-\({\mathcal{O}}\) classification, J. Stat. Phys. 76:209 (1994).
J. Fröhlich, T. Kerler, U. M. Studer, and E. Thiran, Structuring the Set of Incompressible Quantum Hall Fluids, preprint ETH-TH/95-5.
J. Fröhlich, U. M. Studer, and E. Thiran, A classification of Quantum Hall fluids, J. Stat. Phys. 86:821 (1997).
J. K. Jain, Composite-Fermion approach for the fractional Quantum Hall effect, Phys. Rev. Lett. 63:199 (1989); Incompressible Quantum Hall states, Phys. Rev. B 40:8079 (1989).
G. Moore and N. Read, Nonabelions in the fractional Quantum Hall effect, Nucl. Phys. B 360:362 (1991).
M. Milovanovic and N. Read, Edge excitations of paired fractional Quantum Hall states, Phys. Rev. B 53:13559 (1996).
K. Bardakçi and M. B. Halpern, New dual quark models, Phys. Rev. D 3:2493 (1971).
P. Goddard, A. Kent, and D. I. Olive, Virasoro algebras and coset space models, Phys. Lett. B 152:88 (1985).
A. Cappelli, L. S. Georgiev, and I. T. Todorov, A unified conformal field theory description of paired Quantum Hall states, Commun. Math. Phys. 205:657 (1999).
D. J. Thouless, M. Kohmoto, M. P. Nightingale, and M. den Nijs, Quantized Hall conductance in a two-dimensional periodic potential, Phys. Rev. Lett. 49:405 (1982).
J. E. Avron and R. Seiler, Quantization of the Hall conductance for general, multiparticle Schrödinger Hamiltonians, Phys. Rev. Lett. 54:259 (1985).
E. Fradkin, Field Theories of Condensed Matter Systems, Frontiers in Physics, Vol. 82 (Addison-Wesley, Redwood City, 1991).
J. Belissard, in Localization in Disordered Systems, W. Weller and P. Ziesche, eds. (Teubner, Leipzig, 1988), Teubner Physics Text, No. 165; Operator Algebras and Applications, Lecture Notes, Vol. 136, D. E. Evans and M. Takesaki, eds. (London Mathematical Society, Cambridge, 1988), Vol. 2, p. 49.
J. E. Avron, R. Seiler, and B. Simon, Homotopy and quantization in condensed matter physics, Phys. Rev. Lett. 51:51 (1983).
M. Aizenman and G. M. Graf, Localization bounds for an electron gas, J. Phys. A 31:6783 (1998).
J. Fröhlich, G. M. Graf, and J. Walcher, On the extended nature of edge states of Quantum Hall Hamiltonians, Ann. Henri Poincaré 1:405 (2000).
N. Macris, P. A. Martin, J. V. Pule, On edge states in semi-infinite Quantum Hall systems, J. Phys. A 32:1985 (1998).
S. De Bièvre and J. V. Pule, Propagating edge states for a magnetic Hamiltonian, Math. Phys. Electr. J. 5 (1999).
A. Yu. Alekseev, V. V. Cheianov, and J. Fröhlich, Comparing conductance quantization in quantum wires and Quantum Hall systems, Phys. Rev. B 54:817320 (1996).
J. Fuchs, A. N. Schellekens, and C. Schweigert, The resolution of field identification fixed points in diagonal coset theories, Nucl. Phys. B 461:371 (1996).
S. Deser, R. Jackiw, and S. Templeton, Topologically massive gauge theories, Ann. Phys. 140:372 (1982).
R. Jackiw, in Current Algebra and Anomalies (Princeton University Press, 1972).
G. Felder, J. Fröhlich, and G. Keller, On the structure of unitary conformal field theory II: Representation theoretic approach, Commun. Math. Phys. 130:1 (1990).
S. Elitzur, G. Moore, A. Schwimmer, and N. Seiberg, Remarks on the canonical quantization of the Chern–Simons–Witten theory, Nucl. Phys. B 326:108 (1989).
M. Flohr, Logarithmic conformal field theory and Seiberg-Witten models, Phys. Lett. B 444:179 (1998).
G. Sierra, Conformal Field Theory and the Exact Solution of the BCS Hamiltonian, preprint hep-th/9911078.
A. N. Schellekens and S. Yankielowicz, Simple currents, modular invariants, and fixed points, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 5:2903 (1990).
L. Saminadayar, D. C. Glattli, Y. Jin, and B. Etienne, Observation of the e/3 fractionally charged Laughlin quasiparticles, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79:2526 (1997).
R. de Picciotto, M. Reznikov, M. Heiblum, V. Umansky, G. Bunin, and D. Mahalu, Direct observation of a fractional charge, Nature 389:162 (1997); M. Reznikov, R. de Picciotto, T. G. Griffiths, M. Heiblum, and V. Umansky, Observation of quasiparticles with one-fifth of an electron's charge, Nature 399:238 (1999).
L. Birke, J. Fuchs, and C. Schweigert, Symmetry Breaking Boundary Conditions and WZW Orbifolds, preprint hep-th/9905038, to appear in Adv. Theor. Math. Phys..
P. Goddard, A. Kent, and D. I. Olive, Unitary representations of the Virasoro and super Virasoro algebras, Commun. Math. Phys. 103:105 (1986).
G. Felder, K. Gawedzki, and A. Kupiainen, Coset construction from functional integral, Nucl. Phys. B 320:625 (1989).
A. N. Schellekens and S. Yankielowicz, Field identification fixed points in the coset construction, Nucl. Phys. B 334:67 (1990).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fröhlich, J., Pedrini, B., Schweigert, C. et al. Universality in Quantum Hall Systems: Coset Construction of Incompressible States. Journal of Statistical Physics 103, 527–567 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010389232079
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010389232079