Possible Reentrance of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect in the Lowest Landau Level

TL;DR

This paper explores the possibility of reentrant fractional quantum Hall states in the lowest Landau level by calculating energies of various phases, suggesting liquid phases could explain observed phenomena at specific filling factors.

Contribution

It introduces a model predicting reentrant fractional quantum Hall effects due to phase alternation between solids and liquids in composite fermions.

Findings

Liquid phases have lower energy than solids at certain filling factors.

Reentrant phenomena may occur due to phase alternation.

Potential explanation for observed reentrant fractional quantum Hall effects.

Abstract

In the framework of a recently developed model of interacting composite fermions, we calculate the energy of different solid and Laughlin-type liquid phases of spin-polarized composite fermions. The liquid phases have a lower energy than the competing solids around the electronic filling factors nu=4/11,6/17, and 4/19 and may thus be responsible for the fractional quantum Hall effect at nu=4/11. The alternation between solid and liquid phases when varying the magnetic field may lead to reentrance phenomena in analogy with the observed reentrant integral quantum Hall effect.