Nature of quasiparticle excitations in the fractional quantum Hall effect

TL;DR

This paper explores the nature of quasiparticle excitations in the 1/3 fractional quantum Hall state, revealing they are best described as excited composite fermions in higher quasi-Landau levels, with improved energy estimates over previous models.

Contribution

It introduces a composite fermion-based description of quasiparticles that provides lower energy solutions and new qualitative structures compared to earlier models.

Findings

Composite fermion wave function lowers energy by 15% compared to Laughlin's model.

Quasiparticles are described as excited composite fermions in higher quasi-Landau levels.

New qualitative structures for two quasiparticles are identified.

Abstract

We investigate the 1/3 fractional quantum Hall state with one and two quasiparticle excitations. It is shown that the quasiparticle excitations are best described as excited composite fermions occupying higher composite-fermion quasi-Landau levels. In particular, the composite-fermion wave function for a single quasiparticle has 15% lower energy than the trial wave function suggested by Laughlin, and for two quasiparticles, the composite fermion theory also gives new qualitative structures.