Electron - hole asymmetry and activation energy in quantum Hall ferromagnets

Abstract

We argue that the dissipative transport in ferromagnetic quantum Hall effect liquids at $ν=2N+1$ is dominated by the thermal activation of pairs consisting of an electron and an antiskyrmion (topological texture which represents a hole with 'screened' exchange interaction), thus manifesting the lack of electron-hole symmetry in quantum Hall ferromagnets. We find that the activation energy of such a pair is not the exchange energy, but is determined by the interplay between the excess Zeeman energy of a skyrmion and the charging energy of its topological texture: $${\cal E}=aε_{\rm Z}^{1/3}E_{\rm C}^{2/3}\ln ^{1/3}(\frac{\Im_{i}}{E_{\rm C}^{2/3}ε_{\rm Z}^{1/3}}), E_{\rm C}=\frac{e^{2}}{χλ}, $$ with $ a\approx 1.75$.