Hořava-Lifshitz gravity and effective theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect

Abstract

Abstract: We show that Hořava-Lifshitz gravity theory can be employed as a covariant framework to build an effective field theory for the fractional quantum Hall effect that respects all the spacetime symmetries such as non-relativistic diffeomorphism invariance and anisotropic Weyl invariance as well as the gauge symmetry. The key to this formalism is a set of correspondence relations that maps all the field degrees of freedom in the Hořava-Lifshitz gravity theory to external background (source) fields among others in the effective action of the quantum Hall effect, according to their symmetry transformation properties. We originally derive the map as a holographic dictionary, but its form is independent of the existence of holographic duality. This paves the way for the application of Hořava-Lifshitz holography on fractional quantum Hall effect. Using the simplest holographic Chern-Simons model, we compute the low energy effective action at leading orders and show that it captures universal electromagnetic and geometric properties of quantum Hall states, including the Wen-Zee shift, Hall viscosity, angular momentum density and their relations. We identify the shift function in Hořava-Lifshitz gravity theory as minus of guiding center velocity and conjugate to guiding center momentum. This enables us to distinguish guiding center angular momentum density from the internal one, which is the sum of Landau orbit spin and intrinsic (topological) spin of the composite particles. Our effective action shows that Hall viscosity is minus half of the internal angular momentum density and proportional to Wen-Zee shift, and Hall bulk viscosity is half of the guiding center angular momentum density.