The Hierarchy of Incompressible Fractional Quantum Hall States

The correlations that give rise to incompressible quantum liquid (IQL) states in fractional quantum Hall systems are determined by the pseudopotential $V(\mathcal R)$ describing the interaction of a pair of Fermions in a degenerate Landau level (LL) as a function of relative pair angular momentum $\mathcal R$. $V(\mathcal R)$ is known for a number of different Fermion systems, e.g. electrons in the lowest Landau level (LL0) or the first excited Landau level (LL1), and for quasiparticles of Laughlin-Jain IQL states. Laughlin correlations, the avoidance of pair states with the smallest values of $\mathcal R$, occur only when $V(\mathcal R)$ satisfies certain conditions. We show that Jain's composite Fermion (CF) picture is valid only if the conditions necessary for Laughlin correlations are satisfied, and we present a rigorous justification of the CF picture without the need of introducing an "irrelevant" mean field energy scale. Electrons in LL1 and quasielectrons in IQL states (e.g. QEs in CF LL1) do not necessarily support Laughlin correlations. Numerical diagonalization studies for small systems of Fermions (electrons in LL0 or in LL1, and QEs in CF LL1), with the use appropriate pseudopotentials $V(\mathcal R)$, show clear evidence for different types of correlations. The relation between LL degeneracy $g=2\ell+1$ and number of Fermions $N$ at which IQL states are found is known for a limited range of $N$ values. However, no simple intuitive models that we have tried satisfactorily describe all of the systems we have studied. Successes and shortcomings of some simple models are discussed, and suggestions for further investigation are made.