Particle-Hole Symmetry and the Fractional Quantum Hall States at 5/2 Filling Factor

Abstract

We propose a derivative operator formed as a function of derivatives of the electron coordinates. When the derivative operator is applied to the Laughlin wave function, two new wave functions in the lowest Landau level at filling factor 1/2 are generated. For systems of 4, 6, and 8 electrons in spherical geometry, it is shown that the first wave function has nearly unity overlap with the particle-hole conjugate of the Moore-Read Pfaffian wave function, therefore together with the Moore-Read Pfaffian state forms a particle-hole conjugate pair. The second wave function has essentially perfect particle-hole symmetry itself, with a positive parity when the number of electron pairs N/2 is an even integer and and a negative parity when N/2 is an odd integer. An equivalent form suggests the first wave function forms a f-wave pairing of composite fermions, and the second wave function forms a p-wave pairing. The corresponding Non-Abelian statistics quasiparticle wave functions are also proposed.