paper

A Novel CFT Approach to Bulk Wave Functions in the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

arXiv:cond-mat/0208429 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.67.235316

Abstract

We propose to describe bulk wave functions of fractional quantum Hall states in terms of correlators of non-unitary b/c-spin systems. These yield a promising conformal field theory analogon of the composite fermion picture of Jain. Fractional statistics is described by twist fields which naturally appear in the b/c-spin systems. We provide a geometrical interpretation of our approach in which bulk wave functions are seen as holomorphic functions over a ramified covering of the complex plane, where the ramification precisely resembles the fractional statistics of the quasi-particle excitations in terms of branch points on the complex plane. To extend Jain's main series, we use the concept of composite fermions pairing to spin singlets, which enjoys a natural description in terms of the particular c=-2 b/c-spin system as known from the Haldane-Rezayi state. In this way we derive conformal field theory proposals for lowest Landau level bulk wave functions for more general filling fractions. We obtain a natural classification of the experimentally confirmed filling fractions which does not contain prominent unobserved fillings. Furthermore, our scheme fits together with classifications in terms of K-matrices of effective multilayer theories leading to striking restrictions of these coupling matrices.

1+31 pages, 1 figure

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