Instantons and the spectral function of electrons in the half-filled Landau level

We calculate the instanton-anti-instanton action $S_{M {\bar M}} (\tau)$ in the gauge theory of the half-filled Landau level. It is found that $S_{M {\bar M}} (\tau) = (3 - \eta) \left [ \Omega_0 (\eta) \ \tau \right ]^{1 / (3 - \eta)}$ for a class of interactions $v ({\bf q}) = V_0 / q^{\eta} \ ( 0 \leq \eta < 2 )$ between electrons. This means that the instanton-anti-instanton pairs are confining so that a well defined `charged' composite fermion can exist. It is also shown that $S_{M {\bar M}} (\tau)$ can be used to calculate the spectral function of electrons from the microscopic theory within a semiclassical approximation. The resulting spectral function varies as $e^{ - \left [ \Omega_0 (\eta) / \omega \right ]^{1 / ( 2 - \eta ) } }$ at low energies.Comment: 13 pages, Plain Tex, MIT-CMT-APR-9

Specific heat and validity of quasiparticle approximation in the half-filled Landau level

We calculate the specific heat of composite fermion system in the half-filled Landau level. Two different methods are used to examine validity of the quasiparticle approximation when the two-body interaction is given by $V(q) = V_0 / q^{2-\eta}$ ($1 \le \eta \le 2$). The singular part of the specific heat is calculated from the free energy of the gauge field, which is compared with the specific heat calculated from the quasiparticle approximation via the singular self-energy correction due to the gauge field fluctuations. It turns out that two results are in general different and they coincide only for the case of the Coulomb interaction ($\eta = 1$). This result supports the fact that the quasiparticle approximation is valid only for the case of the Coulomb interaction. It is emphasized that this result is obtained by looking at a gauge-invariant quantity -- the specific heat.Comment: 8 pages, Revte

Beyond the random phase approximation in the Singwi-Sj\"olander theory of the half-filled Landau level

We study the $\nu=1/2$ Chern-Simons system and consider a self-consistent field theory of the Singwi-Sj\"olander type which goes beyond the random phase approximation (RPA). By considering the Heisenberg equation of motion for the longitudinal momentum operator, we are able to show that the zero-frequency density-density response function vanishes linearly in long wavelength limit independent of any approximation. From this analysis, we derive a consistency condition for a decoupling of the equal time density-density and density-momentum correlation functions. By using the Heisenberg equation of motion of the Wigner distribution function with a decoupling of the correlation functions which respects this consistency condition, we calculate the response functions of the $\nu=1/2$ system. In our scheme, we get a density-density response function which vanishes linearly in the Coulomb case for zero-frequency in the long wavelength limit. Furthermore, we derive the compressibility, and the Landau energy as well as the Coulomb energy. These energies are in better agreement to numerical and exact results, respectively, than the energies calculated in the RPA.Comment: 9 Revtex pages, 4 eps figures, typos correcte

Spin-Orbit Interaction Enhanced Fractional Quantum Hall States in the Second Landau Level

We study the fractional quantum Hall effect at filling fractions 7/3 and 5/2 in the presence of the spin-orbit interaction, using the exact diagonalization method and the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method in a spherical geometry. Trial wave functions at these fillings are the Laughlin state and the Moore-Reed-Pfaffian state. The ground state excitation energy gaps and pair-correlation functions at fractional filling factor 7/3 and 5/2 in the second Landau level are calculated. We find that the spin-orbit interaction stabilizes the fractional quantum Hall states.Comment: 4pages, 4figure

Quasiparticle Interactions in Fractional Quantum Hall Systems: Justification of Different Hierarchy Schemes

The pseudopotentials describing the interactions of quasiparticles in fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states are studied. Rules for the identification of incompressible quantum fluid ground states are found, based upon the form of the pseudopotentials. States belonging to the Jain sequence nu=n/(1+2pn), where n and p are integers, appear to be the only incompressible states in the thermodynamic limit, although other FQH hierarchy states occur for finite size systems. This explains the success of the composite Fermion picture.Comment: RevTeX, 10 pages, 7 EPS figures, submitted fo Phys.Rev.

Spin-singlet hierarchy in the fractional quantum Hall effect

We show that the so-called permanent quantum Hall states are formed by the integer quantum Hall effects on the Haldane-Rezayi quantum Hall state. Novel conformal field theory description along with this picture is deduced. The odd denominator plateaux observed around $\nu=5/2$ are the permanent states if the $\nu=5/2$ plateau is the Haldane-Rezayi state. We point out that there is no such hierarchy on other candidate states for $\nu=5/2$. We propose experiments to test our prediction.Comment: RevTex,4 pages, v2:typo,one reference adde

Quantum Hall Fluids on the Haldane Sphere: A Diffusion Monte Carlo Study

A generalized diffusion Monte Carlo method for solving the many-body Schr\"odinger equation on curved manifolds is introduced and used to perform a `fixed-phase' simulation of the fractional quantum Hall effect on the Haldane sphere. This new method is used to study the effect of Landau level mixing on the $\nu=1/3$ energy gap and the relative stability of spin-polarized and spin-reversed quasielectron excitations.Comment: 13 pages, Revtex + psfig, figures include

Gauge-invariant response functions of fermions coupled to a gauge field

We study a model of fermions interacting with a gauge field and calculate gauge-invariant two-particle Green's functions or response functions. The leading singular contributions from the self-energy correction are found to be cancelled by those from the vertex correction for small $q$ and $\Omega$. As a result, the remaining contributions are not singular enough to change the leading order results of the random phase approximation. It is also shown that the gauge field propagator is not renormalized up to two-loop order. We examine the resulting gauge-invariant two-particle Green's functions for small $q$ and $\Omega$, but for all ratios of $\Omega / v_F q$ and we conclude that they can be described by Fermi liquid forms without a diverging effective mass.Comment: Plain Tex, 35 pages, 5 figures available upon request, Revised Version (Expanded discussion), To be published in Physical Review B 50, (1994) (December 15 issue

The Haldane-Rezayi Quantum Hall State and Magnetic Flux

We consider the general abelian background configurations for the Haldane-Rezayi quantum Hall state. We determine the stable configurations to be the ones with the spontaneous flux of $(\Z+1/2) \phi_0$ with $\phi_0 = hc/e$. This gives the physical mechanism by which the edge theory of the state becomes identical to the one for the 331 state. It also provides a new experimental consequence which can be tested in the enigmatic $\nu=5/2$ plateau in a single layer system.Comment: RevTex, 5 pages, 2 figures. v2:minor corrections. v4: published version. Discussion on the thermodynamic limit adde

Quantum Boltzmann equation of composite fermions interacting with a gauge field

We derive the quantum Boltzmann equation (QBE) of composite fermions at/near the $\nu = 1/2$ state using the non-equilibrium Green's function technique. The lowest order perturbative correction to the self-energy due to the strong gauge field fluctuations suggests that there is no well defined Landau-quasi-particle. Therefore, we cannot assume the existence of the Landau-quasi-particles {\it a priori} in the derivation of the QBE. Using an alternative formulation, we derive the QBE for the generalized Fermi surface displacement which corresponds to the local variation of the chemical potential in momentum space. {}From this QBE, one can understand in a unified fashion the Fermi-liquid behaviors of the density-density and the current-current correlation functions at $\nu = 1/2$ (in the long wave length and the low frequency limits) and the singular behavior of the energy gap obtained from the finite temperature activation behavior of the compressibility near $\nu = 1/2$. Implications of these results to the recent experiments are also discussed.Comment: 44 pages, Plain Tex, 5 figures (ps files) available upon reques