Interaction-tuned compressible-to-incompressible phase transitions in the quantum Hall systems

Abstract

We analyze transitions between quantum Hall ground states at prominent filling factors $ν$ in the spherical geometry by tuning the width parameter of the Zhang-Das Sarma interaction potential. We find that incompressible ground states evolve adiabatically under this tuning, whereas the compressible ones are driven through a first order phase transition. Overlap calculations show that the resulting phase is increasingly well described by appropriate analytic model wavefunctions (Laughlin, Moore-Read, Read-Rezayi). This scenario is shared by both odd ($ν=1/3, 1/5, 3/5, 7/3, 11/5, 13/5$) and even denominator states ($ν=1/2, 1/4, 5/2, 9/4$). In particular, the Fermi liquid-like state at $ν=1/2$ gives way, at large enough value of the width parameter, to an incompressible state identified as the Moore-Read Pfaffian on the basis of its entanglement spectrum.

4 pages, 5 figures; modified version as appears in PRB