Flux attachment theory of fractional excitonic insulators

Abstract: The search for fractional quantized Hall phases in the absence of a magnetic field has primarily targeted flat-band systems that mimic the features of a Landau level. In an alternative approach, the fractional excitonic insulator (FEI) has been proposed as a correlated electron-hole fluid that arises near a band inversion between bands of different angular momentum with strong interactions. It remains an interesting challenge to find Hamiltonians with realistic interactions that stabilize this state. Here, we describe composite boson and composite fermion theories that highlight the importance of $(p_x+ip_y)^m$ excitonic pairing in stabilizing FEIs in a class of band inversion models. We predict a sequence of Jain-like and Laughlin-like FEI states, the simplest of which has the topological order of the bosonic $\nu=1/2$ fractional quantized Hall state. We discuss implications for recent numerical studies on a chiral spin liquid phase in interacting Chern insulator models.