arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R. Shankar.
We study the current algebra of FQHE systems in the hydrodynamical limit of small amplitude, long-wavelength fluctuations. We show that the algebra simplifies considerably in this limit. The hamiltonian is expressed in a current-current form and the operators creating inter-Landau level and lowest Landau level collective excitations are identified.
Luttinger's contributions abound in different parts of many-body physics. Here I review the ones that appear when one uses the Renormalization Group (RG) to study the subject: the Luttinger Liquid, Luttinger's Theorem (on the volume of the Fermi surface) and the Kohn-Luttinger Theorem on the superconducting instability of all metals as one approaches absolute zero.
I furnish details of the hamiltonian theory of the FQHE developed with Murthy for the infrared, which I subsequently extended to all distances and apply it to Jain fractions ν= p/(2ps + 1). The explicit operator description in terms of the CF allows one to answer quantitative and qualitative issues, some of which cannot even be posed otherwise. I compute activation gaps for several potentials, exhibit their particle hole symmetry, the profiles of charge density in states with a quasiparticles or hole, (all in closed form) and compare to results from trial wavefunctions and exact diagonalization. The Hartree-Fock approximation is used since much of the nonperturbative physics is built in at tree level. I compare the gaps to experiment and comment on the rough equality of normalized masses near half and quarter filling. I compute the critical fields at which the Hall system will jump from one quantized value of polarization to another, and the polarization and relaxation rates for half filling as a function of temperature and propose a Korringa like law. After providing some plausibility arguments, I explore the possibility of describing several magnetic phenomena in dirty systems with an effective potential, by extracting a free parameter describing the potential from one data point and then using it to predict all the others from that sample. This works to the accuracy typical of this theory (10 -20 percent). I explain why the CF behaves like free particle in some magnetic experiments when it is not, what exactly the CF is made of, what one means by its dipole moment, and how the comparison of theory to experiment must be modified to fit the peculiarities of the quantized Hall problem.
We develop a systematic semiclassical approximation scheme for quantum Hall skyrmions near filling factors $ν= {1 \over 2n+1}$, which is exact in the long wavelength limit. We construct a coherent state basis for the Hilbert space of Chern-Simons gauge fields and composite bosons with spin. These states are projected to the physical gauge invariant subspace and their wavefunctions explicitly evaluated. The lowest Landau level (LLL) condition is shown to be equivalent to an analyticity condition on the parameters. The matrix elements of physical observables between these states are shown to be calculable in the limit of small amplitude long wavelength density fluctuations. The electric charge density is shown to be proportional to the toplological charge density if and only if the LLL condition is satisfied. We then show that these states themselves form a generalised coherent state basis, parameterised by the values of physical observables. The theory can therefore be written in terms of these gauge invariant bosonic fields in the long wavelength regime. The off diagonal matrix elements of observables in these coherent states are computed and shown to vanish in the long wavelength limit. Thus we are able to prove that the classical description of the skyrmion is exact in the limit of large skyrmions.
I show that the hamiltonian theory of Composite Fermions (CF) is capable of yielding a unified description in fair agreement with recent experiments on polarization P and relaxation rate 1/T_1 in quantum Hall states at filling nu = p/(2ps+1), at and near nu = 1/2 and 1/4, at zero and nonzero temperatures. I show how rotational invariance and two dimensionality can make the underlying interacting theory behave like a free one in a limited context.
The Lowest Landau Level (LLL), long distance theory of Composite Fermions (CF) developed by Murthy and myself is minimally extended to all distances, guided by very general principles. The resulting theory is mathematically consistent, and physically appealing: we clearly see the electron and the vortices binding to form the CF. The meaning of the constraints, their role in ensuring compressibility of dipolar objects at $ν=1/2$, and the observability of dipoles are clarified.
In this paper, we study the phases of the Heisenberg model on the \kagome lattice with antiferromagnetic nearest neighbour coupling $J_1$ and ferromagnetic next neighbour coupling $J_2$. Analysing the long wavelength, low energy effective action that describes this model, we arrive at the phase diagram as a function of $χ= \frac{J_2}{J_1} $. The interesting part of this phase diagram is that for small $χ$, which includes $χ=0$, there is a phase with no long range spin order and with gapless and spin zero low lying excitations. We discuss our results in the context of earlier, numerical and experimental work.
We examine the Ising chain in a transverse field at zero temperature from the point of view of a family of moment formalisms based upon the cumulant generating function, where we find exact solutions for the generating functions and cumulants at arbitrary couplings and hence for both the ordered and disordered phases of the model. In a t-expansion analysis, the exact Horn-Weinstein function E(t) has cuts along an infinite set of curves in the complex Jt-plane which are confined to the left-hand half-plane Im Jt < -1/4 for the phase containing the trial state (disordered), but are not so for the other phase (ordered). For finite couplings the expansion has a finite radius of convergence. Asymptotic forms for this function exhibit a crossover at the critical point, giving the excited state gap in the ground state sector for the disordered phase, and the first excited state gap in the ordered phase. Convergence of the t-expansion with respect to truncation order is found in the disordered phase right up to the critical point, for both the ground state energy and the excited state gap. However convergence is found in only one of the Connected Moments Expansions (CMX), the CMX-LT, and the ground state energy shows convergence right to the critical point again, although to a limited accuracy.
We give a formulation of the single particle occupation probabilities for a system of identical particles obeying fractional exclusion statistics of Haldane. We first derive a set of constraints using an exactly solvable model which describes an ideal exclusion statistics system and deduce the general counting rules for occupancy of states obeyed by these particles. We show that the problem of negative probabilities may be avoided with these new counting rules.
The microscopic approach of Murthy and Shankar, which has recently been used to calculate the transport gaps of quantum Hall states with fractions p/(2ps+1), also implies scaling relations between gaps within a single sequence (fixed s) as well as between gaps of corresponding states in different sequences. This work tests these relations for a system of electrons in the lowest Landau level interacting with a model potential cutoff at high momenta due to sample thickness.
We analytically calculate gaps for the 1/3, 2/5, and 3/7 polarized and partially polarized Fractional Quantum Hall states based on the Hamiltonian Chern-Simons theory we have developed. For a class of potentials that are soft at high momenta (due to the finite thickness of the sample) we find good agreement with numerical and experimental results.
We provide details of a shorter letter and cond-mat/9702098 and some new results. We describe a Chern-Simons theory for the fractional quantum Hall states in which magnetoplasmon degrees of freedom enter. We derive correlated wavefunctions, operators for creating quasiholes and composite fermions and bosons (which are electrons bound to zeros). We show how the charge of these particles and mass gets renormalized to the final values and compute the effective mass approximately. By deriving a hamiltonian description of the composite fermions and bosons and their charge and current operators, we make precise and reconcile many notions that have been associated with them.
We present a Chern-Simons theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect in which flux attachment is followed by a transformation that effectively attaches the correlation holes. We extract the correlated wavefunctions, compute the drift and cyclotron currents (due to inhomogeneous density), exhibit the Read operator, and operators that create quasi-particles and holes. We show how the bare kinetic energy can get quenched and replaced by one due to interactions. We find that for $ν=1/2$ the low energy theory has neutral quasiparticles and give the effective hamiltonian and constraints.
We analyse a family of models, that interpolates between the Triangular lattice antiferromagnet (TLAF) and the Kagome lattice antiferromagnet (KLAF). We identify the field theories governing the low energy, long wavelength physics of these models. Near the TLAF the low energy field theory is a nonlinear sigma model of a SO(3) group valued field. The SO(3) symmetry of the spin system is enhanced to a $SO(3)_R \times SO(2)_L$ symmetry in the field theory. Near the KLAF other modes become important and the field takes values in $SO(3) \times S_2$. We analyse this field theory and show that it admits a novel phase in which the $SO(3)_R$ spin symmetry is unbroken and the $SO(2)_L$ symmetry is broken. We propose this as a possible mechanism by which a gapless excitation can exist in the KLAF without breaking the spin rotation symmetry.
Some personal reminiscences are followed by a brief illustration of how effective field theories are used in condensed matter physics. Examples include Landau's Fermi liquid, sigma models with topological terms, Dirac fermions and the Gross Neveu model.
The spin polarization versus temperature at or near a fully filled lowest Landau level is explored for finite-size systems in a periodic rectangular geometry. Our results at $ν=1$ which also include the finite-thickness correction are in good agreement with the experimental results. We also find that the interacting electron system results are in complete agreement with the results of the sigma model, i.e., skyrmions on a torus have a topological charge of $Q \ge 2$ and the Q=1 solution is like a single spin-flip excitation. Our results therefore provide direct evidence for the skyrmionic nature of the excitations at this filling factor.
The Quantum Hall ground state away from $ν= 1$ can be described by a collection of interacting skyrmions. We show within the context of a nonlinear sigma model, that the classical ground state away from $ν= 1$ is a skyrmion crystal with a generalized Néel order. We show that as a function of filling $ν$, the skyrmion crystal undergoes a triangle to square to triangle transition at zero temperature. We argue that this structural transition, driven by a change in the shape of the individual skyrmions, is stable to thermal and quantum fluctuations and may be probed experimentally.
We address the problem of separating the short-distance, high-energy physics of cyclotron motion from the long- distance, low-energy physics within the Lowest Landau Level in field theoretic treatments of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect. We illustrate our method for the case $ν=1/2$. By a sequence of field transformations we go from electrons to fermions that carry flux tubes of thickness $l_o$ (cyclotron radius) and couple to harmonic oscillators corresponding to magnetoplasmons. The fermions keep track of the low energy physics while the oscillators describe the Landau level, cyclotron currents etc. From this starting point we are able to get Jain and Rezayi-Read wavefunctions, and many subsequent modifications of the RPA analysis of Halperin, Lee and Read.