Duality and the fractional quantum Hall effect Original Research Article

The edge states of a sample displaying the quantum Hall effect (QHE) can be described by a (1+1)-dimensional (conformal) field theory of d massless scalar fields taking values on a d-dimensional torus. It is known from the work of Naculich, Frohlich et al. and others that the requirement of chirality of currents in this scalar field theory implies the Schwinger anomaly in the presence of an electric field, the anomaly coefficient being related in a specific way to Hall conductivity. The latter can take only certain restricted values with odd denominators if the theory admits fermionic states. We show that the duality symmetry under the O(d, d,;Z) group of the free theory transforms the Hall conductivity in a well-defined way and relates integer and fractional QHEʹs. This means, in particular, that the edge spectra for dually related Hall conductivities are identical, a prediction which may be experimentally testable. We also show that Haldaneʹs hierarchy as well as certain of Jainʹs fractions can be reproduced from the Laughlin fractions using the duality transformations. We thus find a framework for a unified description of the QHEʹs occurring at different fractions. We also give a simple derivation of the wave functions for fractions in Haldaneʹs hierarchy.