Interaction-tuned compressible-to-incompressible phase transitions in quantum Hall systems

We analyze transitions between quantum Hall ground states at prominent filling factors nu in the spherical geometry by tuning the width parameter of the Zhang-Das Sarma interaction potential. We find that incompressible ground states evolve adiabatically under this tuning, whereas the compressible ones are driven through a first-order phase transition. Overlap calculations show that the resulting phase is increasingly well described by appropriate analytic model wave functions (Laughlin, Moore-Read, Read-Rezayi). This scenario is shared by both odd (nu n= 1/3, 1/5, 3/5, 7/3, 11/5, 13/5) and even denominator states (nu= 1/2, 1/4, 5/2, 9/4). In particular, the Fermi-liquid-like state at nu = 1/2 gives way, at large enough value of the width parameter, to an incompressible state identified as the Moore-Read Pfaffian on the basis of its entanglement spectrum.