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Title: The Chern-Simons-Landau-Ginzburg theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect

Journal Article · · International Journal of Modern Physics B; (United States)
 [1]
  1. IBM Research Div., Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA (US)

This paper gives a systematic review of a field theoretical approach to the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) that has been developed in the past few years. The authors first illustrate some simple physical ideas to motivate such an approach and then present a systematic derivation of the Chern-Simons-Landau-Ginzburg (CSLG) action for the FQHE, starting from the microscopic Hamiltonian. It is demonstrated that all the phenomenological aspects of the FQHE can be derived from the mean field solution and the small fluctuations of the CSLG action. Although this formalism is logically independent of Laughlin's wave function approach, their physical consequences are equivalent. In particular, it is shown that the Laughlin's wave function can be derived from the CSLG theory under reasonable approximations. The CSLG theory demonstrates a deep connection between the phenomena of superfluidity and the FQHE, and can provide a simple and direct formalism to address many new macroscopic phenomena of the FQHE.

OSTI ID:
5223253
Journal Information:
International Journal of Modern Physics B; (United States), Vol. 6:5; ISSN 0217-9792
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English