Spin Configurations and Activation Gaps of the Quantum Hall States in Graphene

TL;DR

This paper investigates the spin configurations and activation gaps of quantum Hall states in graphene under high magnetic fields, revealing the importance of electron interactions and disorder effects on observed phenomena.

Contribution

It provides a detailed evaluation of spin polarizations and particle-hole gaps in graphene's Landau levels, highlighting the role of interactions and disorder in quantum Hall states.

Findings

Large particle-hole gaps at certain filling factors

Interaction effects lead to non-degenerate ground states

Disorder causes soft modes affecting quantum Hall plateaus

Abstract

We report on our accurate evaluation of spin polarizations of the ground state and particle-hole gaps for partially-filled lowest Landau level, observed in recent experiments on graphene subjected to ultra-high magnetic fields. We find that inter-electron interactions are important at these filling factors, characterized by the non-degenerate ground states and large particle-hole gaps at infinitely large wave vectors. The gaps are the largest for the quantum Hall states in the second Landau level. The weak appearance of quantum Hall plateaus in the experiments for certain filling factors in the second Landau level however indicates that at these filling factors, the system has a soft mode at a finite wave vector due presumably to the presence of disorder.