Microscopic study of the Halperin-Laughlin interface through matrix product states.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31015403.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-09169-y and PMC identifier 6478930.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Interfaces between topologically distinct phases of matter reveal a remarkably rich phenomenology. We study the experimentally relevant interface between a Laughlin phase at filling factor ν = 1/3 and a Halperin 332 phase at filling factor ν = 2/5. Based on our recent construction of chiral topological interfaces (Nat. Commun. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09168-z ; 2019), we study a family of model wavefunctions that captures both the bulk and interface properties. These model wavefunctions are built within the matrix product state framework. The validity of our approach is substantiated through extensive comparisons with exact diagonalization studies. We probe previously unreachable features of the low energy physics of the transition. We provide, amongst other things, the characterization of the interface gapless mode and the identification of the spin and charge excitations in the many-body spectrum. The methods and tools presented are applicable to a broad range of topological interfaces.