Classification of Abelian and non-Abelian multilayer fractional quantum Hall states through the pattern of zeros

Abstract

A large class of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states can be classified according to their pattern of zeros, which describes the way ideal ground state wave functions go to zero as various clusters of electrons are brought together. In this paper we generalize this approach to classify multilayer FQH states. Such a classification leads to the construction of a class of non-Abelian multilayer FQH states that are closely related to $\hat{g}_k$ parafermion conformal field theories, where $\hat{g}_k$ is an affine simple Lie algebra. We discuss the possibility of some of the simplest of these non-Abelian states occuring in experiments on bilayer FQH systems at $\nu = 2/3$, 4/5, 4/7, etc.