Field Theoretical Approach To Quantum Hall Ferromagnets

Rashmi Ray, Joan Soto

Published 1997-08-08Version 1

We present a quantum field theoretical analysis of a $\nu = 1$ quantum Hall system when the effective Land\'e $g$ factor is small. We clearly demonstrate that the ground state of the system is ferromagnetic. We note that it is the short range component of the Coulomb interaction which is instrumental in aligning the spins. We then go on to derive the effective lagrangian for the lowest lying spin excitations. At the leading order, apart from the usual O(3) sigma model terms, we find a term proportional to the Pontryagin density and a long range Coulomb interaction term between these densities. Beyond the leading order in the derivative expansion, we find an interesting Chern-Simons term constructed out of the basic spin variables. For low enough energies, however, we notice that the effects of mixing of higher Landau levels is more important than the next to leading terms in the derivative expansion. We provide a systematic way of calculating these corrections.