  In the context of the fractional quantum Hall effect, we investigate
Laughlin's celebrated ansatz for the groud state wave function at fractional
filling of the lowest Landau level. Interpreting its normalization in terms of
a one component plasma, we find the effect of an additional quadrupolar field
on the free energy, and derive estimates for the thermodynamically equivalent
spherical plasma. In a second part, we present various methods for expanding
the wave function in terms of Slater determinants, and obtain sum rules for the
coefficients. We also address the apparently simpler question of counting the
number of such Slater states using the theory of integral polytopes.
