Models for the phase transition between a Fermi liquid and fractional Chern insulator

ORAL

Abstract

A partially filled band with nonzero Chern density can support fractional quantum Hall states (``fractional Chern insulators'') as a consequence of repulsive interactions between electrons. In the absence of this repulsion, the ground state is generically a simple band metal with an anomalous Hall effect. There are several possible scenarios for a second-order transition between metallic and quantum Hall states, which can be approached as a composite-fermion band crossing, a coupling between Luttinger liquids, or via a parton construction. We discuss the extent to which these scenarios lead to different predictions and test those predictions by density-matrix renormalization group calculations.

*The authors acknowledge support from NSF DMR-1206515 (J.E.M. and M.Z.) and a Simons Foundation postdoctoral fellowship (S.P.).

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Authors

  • Joel Moore

    • University of California, Berkeley, CA
    • Univesity of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • University of California, Berkeley
    • University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Michael Zaletel

    • UC Berkeley
    • University of California, Berkeley

  • Siddharth Parameswaran

    • UC Berkeley and UC Irvine
    • UC Berkeley, UC Irvine
    • University of California, Berkeley