Scale Invariance in the Lowest Landau Level

TL;DR

This paper explores the universal short-range correlations in the lowest Landau level using pair amplitudes, revealing a quantum anomaly and its effects on scale invariance and collective modes.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive description of LLL states via pair amplitudes and uncovers a quantum anomaly affecting scale invariance and collective excitations.

Findings

Pair amplitudes generalize the Tan contact in LLL.

Analytic relations between pair amplitudes and pseudopotentials.

Interaction-induced shift in the breathing mode frequency.

Abstract

We show that the discrete set of pair amplitudes $A_m$ introduced by Haldane are an angular-momentum resolved generalization of the Tan two-body contact, which parametrizes universal short-range correlations in atomic quantum gases. The pair amplitudes provide a complete description of translation-invariant and rotation-invariant states in the lowest Landau level (LLL), both compressible and incompressible. To leading nontrivial order beyond the non-interacting high-temperature limit, they are determined analytically in terms of the Haldane pseudopotential parameters $V_m$, which provides a qualitative description of the crossover towards incompressible ground states for different filling factors. Moreover, we show that for contact interactions $\sim g_2 \delta^{(2)}({\bf x})$, which are scale invariant at the classical level, the non-commutativity of the guiding center coordinates gives rise to a quantum anomaly in the commutator $i [\hat{H}_{\rm LLL}, \hat{D}_R] = (2 + \ell \partial_\ell) \hat{H}_{\rm LLL}$ with the dilatation operator $\hat{D}_R$ in the LLL, which replaces the trace anomaly in the absence of a magnetic field. The interaction-induced breaking of scale invariance gives rise to a finite frequency shift of the breathing mode in a harmonic trap, which describes transitions between different Landau levels, the strength of which is estimated in terms of the relevant dimensionless coupling constant $\tilde{g}_2$.