Pulling Fluxes Away from Particles in Quantum Hall States of Atomic Gases

Quantum Hall states are often described as states with magnetic fluxes attached to the particles. In the case of rapidly rotating atomic gases, we show that by deforming the trapping potential of a rotating cluster, one can in fact pull the fluxes away from the particles in their quantum Hall state, as a consequence of the balance between rotational energy and interaction energy. This phenomenon can be revealed clearly from the density profile of the clusters after releasing the atoms from the trap, as well as from photoassociation experiments which measure the short range correlations.