Topological Quantum Matter Seminar

Speaker: Hart Goldman, University of Chicago

Title: Composite fermions and the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect

Abstract: Recent experiments have revealed evidence for fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) states at zero magnetic field in a growing number of moire materials. In this talk, I will argue that a composite fermion description, already a unifying framework for the phenomenology of 2d electron gases at high magnetic fields, provides a similarly powerful perspective in this new zero-field context. In particular, a central prediction of the composite fermion framework is a non-Fermi liquid metal of composite fermions at even-denominator fillings. To this end, I will present exact diagonalization evidence for such composite Fermi liquid states at zero magnetic field in twisted MoTe2 bilayers, at fillings n = 1/2 and n = 3/4. Dubbing these states anomalous composite Fermi liquids (ACFLs), I will argue that they play a central organizing role in the FQAH phase diagram. I will also develop a long wavelength theory for this ACFL state, which offers concrete experimental predictions that I will discuss in relation to current measurements. For example, upon doping the composite Fermi sea, one obtains a Jain sequence of FQAH states consistent with those observed experimentally, as well as a new type of commensurability oscillations originating from the superlattice potential intrinsic to the system. Finally, I will discuss opportunities for new physics not possible in quantum Hall systems at finite magnetic field.