Chiral Luttinger liquid and the edge excitations in the fractional quantum Hall states

Journal Article · Fri Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.41.12838· OSTI ID:6746188

Wen, X G ^[1]

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1. School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 (USA)

The low-energy effective theory of the edge excitations in the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states is derived. The edge excitations are shown to form a new kind of state which is called the chiral Luttinger liquid ({chi}LL). The effective theory is exactly soluble. This enables us to easily calculate all the low-energy properties of the edge excitations. We calculate the electron propagator and the spectral function, which clearly demonstrate the non-Fermi-liquid behaviors of the {chi}LL. We also calculate the interference effects between excitations on different edges. We demonstrate that the properties of the edge excitations are closely related to the properties of the FQH states on compacted spaces. Thus the properties of the edge excitations can be used to characterize the topological orders in the FQH states. We also show that the FQH states with filling fractions {nu}{ne}1/{ital l} must have at least two branches of edge excitations.

• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76ER02220
• OSTI ID: 6746188
• Journal Information: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (USA), Vol. 41:18; ISSN 0163-1829
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
SOLIDS
HALL EFFECT
COLLECTIVE EXCITATIONS
ELECTRONS
INTERFERENCE
PROPAGATOR
QUANTUM MECHANICS
SPECTRAL FUNCTIONS
TOPOLOGY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
EXCITATION
FERMIONS
FUNCTIONS
LEPTONS
MATHEMATICS
MECHANICS
656002* - Condensed Matter Physics- General Techniques in Condensed Matter- (1987-)