Competing Crystal Phases in the Lowest Landau Level

TL;DR

This paper investigates the complex interplay of composite fermion crystal phases in the lowest Landau level, revealing nontrivial correlations and phase diagram features that could guide experimental identification of different crystal states.

Contribution

It provides a detailed phase diagram and analyzes elastic constants, highlighting the delicate balance between competing crystal phases in fractional quantum Hall systems.

Findings

Solid phase between 1/5 and 2/9 arises from interplay of composite fermion crystals

Elastic constants show non-monotonic behavior with filling factor

Phase boundaries may be identified through experimental signatures

Abstract

We show that the solid phase between the 1/5 and 2/9 fractional quantum Hall states arises from an extremely delicate interplay between type-1 and type-2 composite fermion crystals, clearly demonstrating its nontrivial, strongly correlated character. We also compute the phase diagram of various crystals occurring over a wide range of filling factors, and demonstrate that the elastic constants exhibit non-monotonic behavior as a function of the filling factor, possibly leading to distinctive experimental signatures that can help mark the phase boundaries separating different kinds of crystals.