Conformal symmetry and universal properties of quantum Hall states
Oct, 1992
46 pages
Published in:
- Nucl.Phys.B 398 (1993) 531-567
e-Print:
- hep-th/9211071 [hep-th]
Report number:
- CERN-TH-6702-92
Citations per year
Abstract:
The low-lying excitations of a quantum Hall state on a disk geometry are edge excitations. Their dynamics is governed by a conformal field theory on the cylinder defined by the disk boundary and the time variable. We give a simple and detailed derivation of this conformal field theory for integer filling, starting from the microscopic dynamics of -dimensional non-relativistic electrons in Landau levels. This construction can be generalized to describe Laughlin's fractional Hall states via chiral bosonization, thereby making contact with the effective Chern-Simons theory approach. The conformal field theory dictates the finite-size effects in the energy spectrum. An experimental or numerical verification of these universal effects would provide a further confirmation of Laughlin's theory of incompressible quantum fluids.- Hall effect
- excited state
- field theory: conformal
- effect: finite size
- thermodynamics
- symmetry: conformal
- boson: chiral
- quantization
- statistics: fractional
- fermion: Weyl
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