Fractional charge revealed in computer simulations of resonant tunneling in the fractional quantum Hall regime

TL;DR

This paper uses computational methods to simulate resonant tunneling in the fractional quantum Hall regime, confirming the fractional charge quantization observed experimentally.

Contribution

It introduces a computational approach combining exact diagonalization and CSR to study resonant tunneling and fractional charge in finite quantum Hall systems.

Findings

Resonant tunneling events are periodic and consistent with fractional charges e/3 and e/5.

Simulation results align with experimental observations of fractional charge.

Finite cluster models can effectively capture edge phenomena in FQHE.

Abstract

The concept of fractional charge is central to the theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE). Here I use exact diagonalization as well as configuration space renormalization (CSR) to study finite clusters which are large enough to contain two independent edges. I analyze the conditions of resonant tunneling between the two edges. The "computer experiment" reveals a periodic sequence of resonant tunneling events consistent with the experimentally observed fractional quantization of electric charge in units of e/3 and e/5.