The Dirac Composite Fermion of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect
We review the recently proposed Dirac composite fermion theory of the half-filled Landau level.
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Publications and source records attributed to Dam Thanh Son.
We review the recently proposed Dirac composite fermion theory of the half-filled Landau level.
We construct an algebraic description for the ground state and for the static response of the quantum Hall plateaux with filling factor $ν=N/(2N+1)$ in the large $N$ limit. By analyzing the algebra of the fluctuations of the shape of the Fermi surface of the composite fermions, we find the explicit form of the projected static structure factor at large $N$ and fixed $z=(2N+1) q\ell_B\sim 1$. When $z<3.8$, the result does not depend on the particular form of the Hamiltonian.
We perform a detailed comparison of the Dirac composite fermion and the recently proposed bimetric theory for a quantum Hall Jain states near half filling. By tuning the composite Fermi liquid to the vicinity of a nematic phase transition, we find that the two theories are equivalent to each other. We verify that the single mode approximation for the response functions and the static structure factor becomes reliable near the phase transition. We show that the dispersion relation of the nematic mode near the phase transition can be obtained from the Dirac brackets between the components of the nematic order parameter. The dispersion is quadratic at low momenta and has a magnetoroton minimum at a finite momentum, which is not related to any nearby inhomogeneous phase.
We consider a field theory describing interacting nonrelativistic particles of two types, which map to each other under time reversal, with point-like interaction. We identify a new type of interaction which depends on the relative velocity between the particles. We compute the renormalization group running of the coupling constants and find a fixed point and a fixed line. We show that the scattering amplitudes can be expressed in terms of three parameters. The result matches with a quantum mechanical analysis and represents the most general point-like interaction consistent with unitarity and time reversal invariance.
We present a bimetric low-energy effective theory of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states that describes the topological properties and a gapped collective excitation, known as Girvin-Macdonald-Platzman (GMP) mode. The theory consist of a topological Chern-Simons action, coupled to a symmetric rank two tensor, and an action à la bimetric gravity, describing the gapped dynamics of the spin-$2$ GMP mode. The theory is formulated in curved ambient space and is spatially covariant, which allows to restrict the form of the effective action and the values of phenomenological coefficients. Using the bimetric theory we calculate the projected static structure factor up to the $k^6$ order in the momentum expansion. To provide further support for the theory, we derive the long wave limit of the GMP algebra, the dispersion relation of the GMP mode, and the Hall viscosity of FQH states. We also comment on the possible applications to fractional Chern insulators, where closely related structures arise. Finally, it is shown that the familiar FQH observables acquire a curious geometric interpretation within the bimetric formalism.
We study fractional quantum Hall states at filling fractions in the Jain sequences using the framework of composite Dirac fermions. Synthesizing previous work, we write down an effective field theory consistent with all symmetry requirements, including Galilean invariance and particle-hole symmetry. Employing a Fermi liquid description, we demonstrate the appearance of the Girvin--Macdonlald--Platzman algebra and compute the dispersion relation of neutral excitations and various response functions. Our results satisfy requirements of particle-hole symmetry. We show that while the dispersion relation obtained from the HLR theory is particle-hole symmetric, correlation functions obtained from HLR are not. The results of the Dirac theory are shown to be consistent with the Haldane bound on the projected structure factor, while those of the HLR theory violate it.
We consider a theory of a two-component Dirac fermion localized on a (2+1) dimensional brane coupled to a (3+1) dimensional bulk. Using the fermionic particle-vortex duality, we show that the theory has a strong-weak duality that maps the coupling $e$ to $\tilde e=(8π)/e$. We explore the theory at $e^2=8π$ where it is self-dual. The electrical conductivity of the theory is a constant independent of frequency. When the system is at finite density and magnetic field at filling factor $ν=\frac12$, the longitudinal and Hall conductivity satisfies a semicircle law, and the ratio of the longitudinal and Hall thermal electric coefficients is completely determined by the Hall angle. The thermal Hall conductivity is directly related to the thermal electric coefficients.
We derive exact physical consequences of particle-hole symmetry of the $ν=1/2$ state of electrons in a strong magnetic field. We show that if the symmetry is not spontaneously broken, the Hall conductivity and the susceptibility satisfy an exact relationship, valid at any wave numbers and any frequencies much below the cyclotron frequency. The relationship holds for clean systems and also for systems with statistically particle-hole symmetric disorder. We work out the constraints this relationship imposes on the theory of the Dirac composite fermion. We also argue that that the exact relationship is violated in the Halperin-Lee-Read (HLR) field theory and present an explicit calculation within a Galilean invariant mean-field approximation to the HLR theory to illustrate the breakdown.
Fractional quantum Hall liquids exhibit a rich set of excitations, the lowest-energy of which are the magnetorotons with dispersion minima at a finite momentum. We propose a theory of the magnetorotons on the quantum Hall plateaux near half filling, namely, at filling fractions $ν=N/(2N+1)$ at large $N$. The theory involves an infinite number of bosonic fields arising from bosonizing the fluctuations of the shape of the composite Fermi surface. At zero momentum there are $O(N)$ neutral excitations, each carrying a well-defined spin that runs integer values $2,3,\ldots$. The mixing of modes at nonzero momentum $q$ leads to the characteristic bending down of the lowest excitation and the appearance of the magnetoroton minima. A purely algebraic argument shows that the magnetoroton minima are located at $q\ell_B=z_i/(2N+1)$, where $\ell_B$ is the magnetic length and $z_i$ are the zeros of the Bessel function $J_1$, independent of the microscopic details. We argue that these minima are universal features of any two-dimensional Fermi surface coupled to a gauge field in a small background magnetic field.
We review the recently proposed Dirac composite fermion theory of the half-filled Landau level. This paper is based on a talk given at the Nambu Symposium at University of Chicago, March 11-13, 2016.
We propose a particle-hole symmetric theory of the Fermi-liquid ground state of a half-filled Landau level. This theory should be applicable for a Dirac fermion in the magnetic field at charge neutrality, as well as for the $ν=\frac12$ quantum Hall ground state of nonrelativistic fermions in the limit of negligible inter-Landau-level mixing. We argue that when particle-hole symmetry is exact, the composite fermion is a massless Dirac fermion, characterized by a Berry phase of $π$ around the Fermi circle. We write down a tentative effective field theory of such a fermion and discuss the discrete symmetries, in particular, $\mathcal C\mathcal P$. The Dirac composite fermions interact through a gauge, but non-Chern-Simons, interaction. The particle-hole conjugate pair of Jain-sequence states at filling factors $\frac n{2n+1}$ and $\frac{n+1}{2n+1}$, which in the conventional composite fermion picture corresponds to integer quantum Hall states with different filling factors, $n$ and $n+1$, is now mapped to the same half-integer filling factor $n+\frac12$ of the Dirac composite fermion. The Pfaffian and anti-Pfaffian states are interpreted as $d$-wave Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer paired states of the Dirac fermion with orbital angular momentum of opposite signs, while $s$-wave pairing would give rise to a particle-hole symmetric non-Abelian gapped phase. When particle-hole symmetry is not exact, the Dirac fermion has a $\mathcal C\mathcal P$-breaking mass. The conventional fermionic Chern-Simons theory is shown to emerge in the nonrelativistic limit of the massive theory.
We find the hydrodynamic equations of a system of particles constrained to be in the lowest Landau level. We interpret the hydrodynamic theory as a Hamiltonian system with the Poisson brackets between the hydrodynamic variables determined from the noncommutativity of space. We argue that the most general hydrodynamic theory can be obtained from this Hamiltonian system by allowing the Righi-Leduc coefficient to be an arbitrary function of thermodynamic variables. We compute the Righi-Leduc coefficients at high temperatures and show that it satisfies the requirements of particle-hole symmetry, which we outline.
We show that for a class of model Hamiltonians for which certain trial quantum Hall wavefunctions are exact ground states, there is a single spectral density function which controls all two-point correlation functions of density, current and stress tensor components. From this we show that the static structure factors of these wavefunctions behaves at long wavelengths as $s_4 k^4$ where the coefficient $s_4$ is directly related to the shift: $s_4=(\mathcal S-1)/8$.
We propose an effective action that describe a relativistic fluid with Hall viscosity. The construction involves a Wess-Zumino-Witten term that exists only in (2+1) spacetime dimensions. We note that this formalism can accommodate only a Hall viscosity which is a homogeneous function of the entropy and particle number densities of degree one.
We study the symmetries of non-relativistic systems with an emphasis on applications to the fractional quantum Hall effect. A source for the energy current of a Galilean system is introduced and the non-relativistic diffeomorphism invariance studied in previous work is enhanced to a full spacetime symmetry, allowing us to derive a number of Ward identities. These symmetries are smooth in the massless limit of the lowest Landau level. We develop a formalism for Newton-Cartan geometry with torsion to write these Ward identities in a covariant form. Previous results on the connection between Hall viscosity and Hall conductivity are reproduced.
We study the spontaneous parity breaking and generating of Hall viscosity and angular momentum in holographic p+ip model, which can describe strongly-coupled chiral superfluid states in many quantum systems. The dual gravity theory, an SU(2) gauge field minimally coupled to Einstein gravity, is parity-invariant but allows a black hole solution with vector hair corresponding to a parity-broken superfluid state. We show that this state possesses a non-vanishing parity-odd transport coefficient -- Hall viscosity -- and an angular momentum density. We first develop an analytic method to solve this model near the critical regime and to take back-reactions into account. Then we solve the equation for the tensor mode fluctuations and obtain the expression for Hall viscosity via Kubo formula. We also show that a non-vanishing angular momentum density can be obtained through the vector mode fluctuations and the corresponding boundary action. We give analytic results of both Hall viscosity and angular momentum density near the critical regime in terms of physical parameters. The near-critical behavior of Hall viscosity is different from that obtained from a gravitational Chern-Simons model. We find that the magnitude of Hall viscosity to angular momentum density ratio is numerically consistent with being equal to 1/2 at large SU(2) coupling corresponding to the probe limit, in agreement with previous results obtained for various quantum fluid systems and from effective theory approaches. In addition, we find the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio remains above the universal bound.
Using the recently developed approach to quantum Hall physics based on Newton-Cartan geometry, we consider the hydrodynamics of an interacting system on the lowest Landau level. We rephrase the non-relativistic fluid equations of motion in a manner that manifests the spacetime diffeomorphism invariance of the underlying theory. In the massless (or lowest Landau level) limit, the fluid obeys a force-free constraint which fixes the charge current. An entropy current analysis further constrains the energy response, determining four transverse response functions in terms of only two: an energy magnetization and a thermal Hall conductivity. Kubo formulas are presented for all transport coefficients and constraints from Weyl invariance derived. We also present a number of Streda-type formulas for the equilibrium response to external electric, magnetic and gravitational fields.
We construct, to leading orders in the momentum expansion, an effective theory of a chiral $p_x + ip_y$ two-dimensional fermionic superfluid at zero temperature that is consistent with nonrelativistic general coordinate invariance. This theory naturally incorporates the parity and time reversal violating effects such as the Hall viscosity and the edge current. The particle number current and stress tensor are computed and their linear response to electromagnetic and gravitational sources is calculated. We also consider an isolated vortex in a chiral superfluid and identify the leading chirality effect in the density depletion profile.