The resonant state at filling factor ν = 1/2 in chiral fermionic ladders

Abstract

Helical liquids have been experimentally realized in both nanowires and ultracold atomic chains as the result of strong spin–orbit interactions. In both cases the inner degrees of freedom can be considered as an additional space dimension, providing an interpretation of these systems as chiral synthetic ladders, with artificial magnetic fluxes determined by the spin–orbit terms. In this work, we characterize the helical state which appears at filling ν = 1/2: this state is generated by a gap arising in the spin sector of the corresponding Luttinger liquid and it can be interpreted as the one-dimensional (1D) limit of a fractional quantum Hall state of bosonic pairs of fermions. We study its main features, focusing on entanglement properties and correlation functions. The techniques developed here provide a key example for the study of similar quasi-1D systems beyond the semiclassical approximation commonly adopted in the description of the Laughlin-like states.

Keywords

• cold atoms
• nanowires
• topological insulators
• fractional quantum Hall states
• spin–orbit coupling