Title: Numerical study of fractional topological insulators
Abstract: Topological insulators are band insulators which are fundamentally different from atomic insulators. Only a non-local quantity called topological invariant can distinguish these two phases. The quantum Hall effect is the first example of a topological insulator, but the same phase can arise in the absence of a magnetic field, and is called a Chern insulator. In the presence of strong interactions, topological insulators may host exotic excitations called anyons. The fractional quantum Hall effect is the only experimentally realized example of such phase. In this manuscript, we study the conditions of emergence of different types of fractional topological insulators, using numerical simulations. We first look at the fractional quantum Hall effect on the torus. We introduce a new projective construction of exotic quantum Hall states that complements the existing construction. We study the low energy excitations on the torus of two of the most emblematic quantum Hall states, the Laughlin and Moore-Read states. We propose and validate model wave functions to describe them. We apply this knowledge to characterize the excitations of the Laughlin state in Chern insulators. We show the stability of other fractional quantum Hall states in Chern insulators, the composite fermion, Halperin and NASS states. We explore the physics of fractional phases with no equivalent in a quantum Hall system, using two different strategies: first by choosing a model with a higher value of the topological invariant, second by adding time-reversal symmetry, which changes the nature of the topological invariant.