Fractional Hall Conductance of Laughlin States from a Topological Index

Abstract

We provide a rigorous Laughlin-pump argument that establishes the fractional quantization of the Hall conductance directly from the Laughlin state as a topological index. Our proof uses a recently defined index of a pair of pure states together with an infinite matrix product state analysis that is rigorous on a sufficiently thin cylinder. By virtue of the connection to an index, our result implies, in particular, that Laughlin states are representatives of topologically stable fractional quantum Hall phases.