Using the effective conformal field theory for the quantum Hall edge states
we propose a compact and convenient scheme for the computation of the periods,
amplitudes and temperature behavior of the chiral persistent currents and the
magnetic susceptibilities in the mesoscopic disk version of the Z_k parafermion
quantum Hall states in the second Landau level. Our numerical calculations show
that the persistent currents are periodic in the Aharonov-Bohm flux with period
exactly one flux quantum and have a diamagnetic nature. In the high-temperature
regime their amplitudes decay exponentially with increasing the temperature and
the corresponding exponents are universal characteristics of non-Fermi liquids.
Our theoretical results for these exponents are in perfect agreement with those
extracted from the numerical data and demonstrate that there is in general a
non-trivial contribution coming from the neutral sector. We emphasize the
crucial role of the non-holomorphic factors, first proposed by Cappelli and
Zemba in the context of the conformal field theory partition functions for the
quantum Hall states, which ensure the invariance of the annulus partition
function under the Laughlin spectral flow.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX4, 7 figures (eps