Structure of Quasiparticles and Their Fusion Algebra in Fractional Quantum Hall States

Maissam Barkeshli, Xiao-Gang Wen

Published 2008-07-17, updated 2008-09-05Version 2

It was recently discovered that fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states can be classified by the way ground state wave functions go to zero when electrons are brought close together. Quasiparticles in the FQH states can be classified in a similar way, by the pattern of zeros that result when electrons are brought close to the quasiparticles. In this paper we combine the pattern-of-zero approach and the conformal-field-theory (CFT) approach to calculate the topological properties of quasiparticles. We discuss how the quasiparticles in FQH states naturally form representations of a magnetic translation algebra, with members of a representation differing from each other by Abelian quasiparticles. We find that this structure dramatically simplifies topological properties of the quasiparticles, such as their fusion rules, charges, and scaling dimensions, and has consequences for the ground state degeneracy of FQH states on higher genus surfaces. We find constraints on the pattern of zeros of quasiparticles that can fuse together, which allow us to obtain the fusion rules of quasiparticles from their pattern of zeros, at least in the case of the (generalized and composite) parafermion states. We also calculate from CFT the number of quasiparticle types in the generalized and composite parafermion states, which confirm the result obtained previously through a completely different approach.