Evidence for chiral graviton modes in fractional quantum Hall liquids

成果类型:
Article
署名作者:
Liang, Jiehui; Liu, Ziyu; Yang, Zihao; Huang, Yuelei; Wurstbauer, Ursula; Dean, Cory R.; West, Ken W.; Pfeiffer, Loren N.; Du, Lingjie; Pinczuk, Aron
署名单位:
Nanjing University; Nanjing University; Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures (CICAM); Columbia University; University of Munster; Princeton University; Nanjing University; Columbia University
刊物名称:
Nature
ISSN/ISSBN:
0028-6400
DOI:
10.1038/s41586-024-07201-w
发表日期:
2024-04-04
页码:
78-+
关键词:
inelastic light-scattering excitation gap state spin
摘要:
Exotic physics could emerge from interplay between geometry and correlation. In fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states(1), novel collective excitations called chiral graviton modes (CGMs) are proposed as quanta of fluctuations of an internal quantum metric under a quantum geometry description(2-5). Such modes are condensed-matter analogues of gravitons that are hypothetical spin-2 bosons. They are characterized by polarized states with chirality(6-8) of +2 or -2, and energy gaps coinciding with the fundamental neutral collective excitations (namely, magnetorotons(9,10)) in the long-wavelength limit. However, CGMs remain experimentally inaccessible. Here we observe chiral spin-2 long-wavelength magnetorotons using inelastic scattering of circularly polarized lights, providing strong evidence for CGMs in FQH liquids. At filling factor v=1/3, a gapped mode identified as the long-wavelength magnetoroton emerges under a specific polarization scheme corresponding to angular momentum S=-2, which persists at extremely long wavelength. Remarkably, the mode chirality remains -2 at v=2/5 but becomes the opposite at v=2/3 and 3/5. The modes have characteristic energies and sharp peaks with marked temperature and filling-factor dependence, corroborating the assignment of long-wavelength magnetorotons. The observations capture the essentials of CGMs and support the FQH geometrical description, paving the way to unveil rich physics of quantum metric effects in topological correlated systems.