FQHE on curved backgrounds, free fields and large N

We study the free energy of the Laughlin state on curved backgrounds, starting from the free field representation. A simple argument, based on the computation of the gravitational effective action from the transformation properties of Green functions under the change of the metric, allows to compute the first three terms of the expansion in large magnetic field. The leading and subleading contributions are given by the Aubin-Yau and Mabuchi functionals respectively, whereas the Liouville action appears at next-to-next-to-leading order. We also derive a path integral representation for the remainder terms. They correspond to a large mass expansion for a related interacting scalar field theory and are thus given by local polynomials in curvature invariants.