Hamiltonian Theory of Anisotropic Fractional Quantum Hall States

Abstract

Rotationally invariant fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states have long been understood in terms of composite bosons or composite fermions. Recent investigations of both incompressible and compressible states in highly tilted fields, which renders them anisotropic, have revealed puzzling features which have so far defied quantitative explanation. The author's work with R. Shankar in constructing and analyzing an operator-based theory in the rotationally invariant FQHE is generalized here to the anisotropic case. We compute the effective anisotropies of many principal fraction states in the lowest and the first Landau levels and find good agreement with previous theoretical results. We compare the effective anisotropy in a model potential with finite sample thickness and find good agreement with experimental results.