Laughlin’s wave functions, Coulomb gases and expansions of the discriminant
Philippe Di Francesco, M. Gaudin · 1994
In the context of the fractional quantum Hall effect, we investigate Laughlin’s celebrated ansatz for the ground state wave function at fractional filling of the lowest Landau level. Interpreting its normalization in terms of a one component plasma, we find the effect of an additional quadrupolar field on the free energy, and derive estimates for the thermodynamically equivalent spherical plasma. In a second part, we present various methods for expanding the wave function in terms of Slater determinants, and obtain sum rules for the coefficients. We also address the apparently simpler question of counting the number of such Slater states using the theory of integral polytopes. 06/93 These notes originate from an attempt to understand the normalization – and other properties – of the many body fermionic wave functions suggested by Laughlin as candidates for the ground states of the fractional quantum Hall effect. Similar quantities appear in the context of the two–dimensional classical one–component plasma (sometimes called