Chiral partition functions of quantum Hall droplets

Abstract

Chiral partition functions of conformal field theory describe the edge excitations of isolated Hall droplets. They are characterized by an index specifying the quasiparticle sector and transform among themselves by a finite-dimensional representation of the modular group. The partition functions are derived and used to describe electron transitions leading to Coulomb blockade conductance peaks. We find the peak patterns for Abelian hierarchical states and non-Abelian Read-Rezayi states, and compare them. Experimental observation of these features can check the qualitative properties of the conformal field theory description, such as the decomposition of the Hilbert space into sectors, involving charged and neutral parts, and the fusion rules. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.