Landau Level Mixing and Solenoidal Terms in Lowest Landau Level Currents

We calculate the lowest Landau level (LLL) current by working in the full Hilbert space of a two dimensional electron system in a magnetic field and keeping all the non-vanishing terms in the high field limit. The answer a) is not represented by a simple LLL operator and b) differs from the current operator, recently derived by Martinez and Stone in a field theoretic LLL formalism, by solenoidal terms. Though that is consistent with the inevitable ambiguities of their Noether construction, we argue that the correct answer cannot arise naturally in the LLL formalism.Comment: 12 pages + 2 figures, Revtex 3.0, UIUC preprint P-94-04-029, (to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett. B

A Field Theory for the Read Operator

We introduce a new field theory for studying quantum Hall systems. The quantum field is a modified version of the bosonic operator introduced by Read. In contrast to Read's original work we do {\em not} work in the lowest Landau level alone, and this leads to a much simpler formalism. We identify an appropriate canonical conjugate field, and write a Hamiltonian that governs the exact dynamics of our bosonic field operators. We describe a Lagrangian formalism, derive the equations of motion for the fields and present a family of mean-field solutions. Finally, we show that these mean field solutions are precisely the Laughlin states. We do not, in this work, address the treatment of fluctuations.Comment: 15 pages, Revtex 3.

Resonating valence bond liquid physics on the triangular lattice

We give an account of the short-range RVB liquid phase on the triangular lattice, starting from an elementary introduction to quantum dimer models including details of the overlap expansion used to generate them. The fate of the topological degeneracy of the state under duality is discussed, as well as recent developments including its possible relevance for quantum computing.Comment: Invited talk at Yukawa Institute Workshop on Quantum Spin Systems; Review with further details for Phys. Rev. Lett 86, 1881 (2001); to appear in Progr. Theor. Phys. (includes relevant style files

Many body localization with long range interactions

Many body localization (MBL) has emerged as a powerful paradigm for understanding non-equilibrium quantum dynamics. Folklore based on perturbative arguments holds that MBL only arises in systems with short range interactions. Here we advance non-perturbative arguments indicating that MBL can arise in systems with long range (Coulomb) interactions. In particular, we show using bosonization that MBL can arise in one dimensional systems with ~ r interactions, a problem that exhibits charge confinement. We also argue that (through the Anderson-Higgs mechanism) MBL can arise in two dimensional systems with log r interactions, and speculate that our arguments may even extend to three dimensional systems with 1/r interactions. Our arguments are `asymptotic' (i.e. valid up to rare region corrections), yet they open the door to investigation of MBL physics in a wide array of long range interacting systems where such physics was previously believed not to arise.Comment: Expanded discussion of higher dimensions, updated reference

Non-linear quantum critical transport and the Schwinger Mechanism

Scaling arguments imply that quantum critical points exhibit universal non-linear responses to external probes. We investigate the origins of such non-linearities in transport, which is especially problematic since the system is necessarily driven far from equilibrium. We argue that for a wide class of systems the new ingredient that enters is the Schwinger mechanism--the production of carriers from the vacuum by the applied field-- which is then balanced against a scattering rate which is itself set by the field. We show by explicit computation how this works for the case of the symmetric superfluid-Mott insulator transition of bosons