  We study the Gaffnian trial wavefunction proposed to describe fractional
quantum Hall correlations at Bose filling factor $\nu=2/3$ and Fermi filling
$\nu=2/5$. A family of Hamiltonians interpolating between a hard-core
interaction for which the physics is known and a projector whose ground state
is the Gaffnian is studied in detail. We give evidence for the absence of a gap
by using large-scale exact diagonalizations in the spherical geometry. This is
in agreement with recent arguments based on the fact that this wavefunction is
constructed from a non-unitary conformal field theory. By using the cylinder
geometry, we discuss in detail the nature of the underlying minimal model and
we show the appearance of heterotic conformal towers in the edge energy
spectrum where left and right movers are generated by distinct primary
operators.
