Dynamical mass generation of composite Dirac fermions and fractional quantum Hall effects near charge neutrality in graphene

We develop a composite Dirac fermion theory for the fractional quantum Hall effects (QHE) near charge neutrality in graphene. We show that the interactions between the composite Dirac fermions lead to a dynamical mass generation through exciton condensation. The four-fold spin–valley degeneracy is fully lifted due to the mass generation and exchange effects such that the odd-denominator fractional QHE observed in the vicinity of charge neutrality can be understood in terms of the integer QHE of composite Dirac fermions. At a filling factor ν = 1/2, we show that the massive composite Dirac fermion liquid is unstable against chiral p-wave pairing for weak Coulomb interactions and the ground state is a paired non-Abelian quantum Hall state described by the Moore–Read Pfaffian in the long wavelength limit. (paper)