Quasihole Tunneling in Disordered Fractional Quantum Hall Systems*

Abstract

Fractional quantum Hall systems are often described by model wave functions, which are the ground states of pure systems with short-range interaction. A primary example is the Laughlin wave function, which supports Abelian quasiparticles with fractionalized charge. In the presence of disorder, the wave function of the ground state is expected to deviate from the Laughlin form. We study the disorder-driven collapse of the quantum Hall state by analyzing the evolution of the ground state and the single-quasihole state. In particular, we demonstrate that the quasihole tunneling amplitude can signal the fractional quantum Hall phase to insulator transition.