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Paper   IPM / P / 6583
School of Physics
  Title:   A Critical Comparison of Field Theory and Microscopic Wave Functions for Skyrmions in Quantum Hall Ferromagnets
  Author(s): 
1.  M. Abolfath
2.  J.J. Palacios
3.  H.A. Fertig
4.  S.M. Grivin
5.  A.H. MacDonald
  Status:   Published
  Journal: Phys. Rev. B
  No.:  48
  Vol.:  56
  Year:  1997
  Pages:   6795-6804
  Supported by:  IPM
  Abstract:
We report on a study of the classical field theory description of charged skyrmions in quantum Hall ferromagnets. The appropriate field theory is a nonlinear σ model generalized to include Coulomb and Zeeman interaction terms. We have tested the range of validity of the classical field theory by comparing with microscopic descriptions of the single-skyrmion state based on the Hartree-Fock approximation, exact diagonalization calculations, and many-body trial wave functions. We find that the field theory description is accurate for skyrmions with moderate spin quantum numbers ( ≥ 10) although, as expected, it fails qualitatively for small spin quantum numbers.

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