Nature of quasiparticle excitations in the fractional quantum Hall effect

According to the composite fermion theory, the interacting electron system at filling factor $\nu$ is equivalent to the non-interacting composite fermion system at $\nu^*=\nu/(1-2m\nu)$, which in turn is related to the non-interacting electron system at $\nu^*$. We show that several eigenstates of non-interacting electrons at $\nu^*$ do not have any partners for interacting electrons at $\nu$, but, upon composite fermion transformation, these states are eliminated, and the re...

The energy gaps for the fractional quantum Hall effect at filling fractions 1/3, 1/5, and 1/7 have been calculated by variational Monte Carlo using Jain's composite fermion wave functions before and after projection onto the lowest Landau level. Before projection there is a contribution to the energy gaps from the first excited Landau level. After projection this contribution vanishes, the quasielectron charge becomes more localized, and the Coulomb energy contribution increa...

This chapter appears in "Fractional Quantum Hall Effects: New Development," edited by B. I. Halperin and J. K. Jain (World Scientific, 2020). The chapter begins with a primer on composite fermions, and then reviews three directions that have recently been pursued. It reports on theoretical calculations making detailed quantitative predictions for two sets of phenomena, namely spin polarization transitions and the phase diagram of the crystal. This is followed by the Kohn-Sham...

Single particle basis functions for composite fermions are obtained from which many-composite fermion states confined to the lowest electronic Landau level can be constructed in the standard manner, i.e., by building Slater determinants. This representation enables a Monte Carlo study of systems containing a large number of composite fermions, yielding new quantitative and qualitative information. The ground state energy and the gaps to charged and neutral excitations are com...

We present a theory of composite fermion edge states and their transport properties in the fractional and integer quantum Hall regimes. We show that the effective electro-chemical potentials of composite fermions at the edges of a Hall bar differ, in general, from those of electrons. An expression for the difference is given. Composite fermion edge states of three different types are identified. Two of the three types have no analog in previous theories of the integer or frac...

Excitation modes in the range $2/5 \geq \nu \geq 1/3$ of the fractional quantum Hall regime are observed by resonant inelastic light scattering. Spectra of spin reversed excitations suggest a structure of lowest spin-split Landau levels of composite fermions that is similar to that of electrons. Spin-flip energies determined from spectra reveal significant composite fermion interactions. The filling factor dependence of mode energies display an abrupt change in the middle of ...

Effect of interlayer tunneling in the double-layer fractional quantum Hall system at the total Landau level filling of $\nu=1/m$ ($m$: odd integer) is analyzed with the composite-fermion approach in which the flux attachment is directly applied to the electron-electron interaction. A comparison with a numerical result indicates that the vertically coupled Laughlin liquids may be regarded as a system of composite fermions with {\em reduced} interparticle interactions and {\em ...

Much of the present day qualitative phenomenology of the fractional quantum Hall effect can be understood by neglecting the interactions between composite fermions altogether. For example the fractional quantum Hall effect at $\nu=n/(2pn\pm 1)$ corresponds to filled composite-fermion Landau levels,and the compressible state at $\nu=1/2p$ to the Fermi sea of composite fermions. Away from these filling factors, the residual interactions between composite fermions will determine...

Exact diagonalization studies have revealed that the energy spectrum of interacting electrons in the lowest Landau level splits, non-perturbatively, into bands, which is responsible for the fascinating phenomenology of this system. The theory of nearly free composite fermions has been shown to be valid for the lowest band, and thus to capture the low temperature physics, but it over-predicts the number of states for the excited bands. We explain the state counting of higher b...

We construct a new representation of composite fermion wave functions in the lowest Landau level which enables Monte Carlo computations at arbitrary filling factors for a fairly large number of composite fermions, thus clearing the way toward a more detailed quantitative investigation of the fractional quantum Hall effect. As an illustrative application, thermodynamic estimates for the transport gaps of several spin polarized incompressible states have been obtained.