Bilayer quantum Hall phase transitions and the orbifold non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall states

Journal Article · Thu Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVB.84.115121· OSTI ID:21596867

Barkeshli, Maissam; Xiaogang, Wen ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)

We study continuous quantum phase transitions that can occur in bilayer fractional quantum Hall (FQH) systems as the interlayer tunneling and interlayer repulsion are tuned. We introduce a slave-particle gauge theory description of a series of continuous transitions from the (ppq) Abelian bilayer states to a set of non-Abelian FQH states, which we dub orbifold FQH states, of which the Z{sub 4} parafermion (Read-Rezayi) state is a special case. This provides an example in which Z{sub 2} electron fractionalization leads to non-Abelian topological phases. The naive ''ideal'' wave functions and ideal Hamiltonians associated with these orbifold states do not in general correspond to incompressible phases but, instead, lie at a nearby critical point. We discuss this unusual situation from the perspective of the pattern-of-zeros/vertex algebra frameworks and discuss implications for the conceptual foundations of these approaches. Due to the proximity in the phase diagram of these non-Abelian states to the (ppq) bilayer states, they may be experimentally relevant, both as candidates for describing the plateaus in single-layer systems at filling fractions 8/3 and 12/5 and as a way to tune to non-Abelian states in double-layer or wide quantum wells.

• OSTI ID: 21596867
• Journal Information: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 84, Issue 11; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.84.115121; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1098-0121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
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HAMILTONIANS
LAYERS
PHASE DIAGRAMS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
QUANTUM WELLS
TOPOLOGY
TUNNEL EFFECT
WAVE FUNCTIONS
DIAGRAMS
FUNCTIONS
INFORMATION
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
MATHEMATICAL OPERATORS
MATHEMATICS
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NANOSTRUCTURES
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