No Arabic abstract
In this paper, we report on the study of Abelian and non-Abelian statistics through Fabry-Perot interferometry of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) systems. Our detection of phase slips in quantum interference experiments demonstrates a powerful, new way of detecting braiding of anyons. We confirm the Abelian anyonic braiding statistics in the $ u = 7/3$ FQH state through detection of the predicted statistical phase angle of $2pi/3$, consistent with a change of the anyonic particle number by one. The $ u = 5/2$ FQH state is theoretically believed to harbor non-Abelian anyons which are Majorana, meaning that each pair of quasiparticles contain a neutral fermion orbital which can be occupied or unoccupied and hence can act as a qubit. In this case our observed statistical phase slips agree with a theoretical model where the Majoranas are strongly coupled to each other, and strongly coupled to the edge modes of the interferometer. In particular, an observed phase slip of approximately $pi$ is interpreted as a sudden flip of a qubit, or entry of a neutral fermion into the interferometer. Our results provide compelling support for the existence of non-Abelian anyons.
We study the trapping of Abelian anyons (quasiholes and quasiparticles) by a local potential (e.g., induced by an AFM tip) in a microscopic model of fractional quantum Hall liquids with long-range Coulomb interaction and edge confining potential. We find, in particular, at Laughlin filling fraction $ u = 1/3$, both quasihole and quasiparticle states can emerge as the ground state of the system in the presence of the trapping potential. As expected, we find the presence of an Abelian quasihole has no effect on the edge spectrum of the quantum liquid, unlike in the non-Abelian case [Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 97}, 256804 (2006)]. Although quasiholes and quasiparticles can emerge generically in the system, their stability depends on the strength of the confining potential, the strength and the range of the trapping potential. We discuss the relevance of the calculation to the high-accuracy generation and control of individual anyons in potential experiments, in particular, in the context of topological quantum computing.
We deduce a new set of symmetries and relations between the coefficients of the expansion of Abelian and Non-Abelian Fractional Quantum Hall (FQH) states in free (bosonic or fermionic) many-body states. Our rules allow to build an approximation of a FQH model state with an overlap increasing with growing system size (that may sometimes reach unity!) while using a fraction of the original Hilbert space. We prove these symmetries by deriving a previously unknown recursion formula for all the coefficients of the Slater expansion of the Laughlin, Read Rezayi and many other states (all Jacks multiplied by Vandermonde determinants), which completely removes the current need for diagonalization procedures.
Topological phases of matter have revolutionized the fundamental understanding of band theory and hold great promise for next-generation technologies such as low-power electronics or quantum computers. Single-gap topologies have been extensively explored, and a large number of materials have been theoretically proposed and experimentally observed. These ideas have recently been extended to multi-gap topologies, characterized by invariants that arise by the momentum space braiding of band nodes that carry non-Abelian charges. However, the constraints placed by the Fermi-Dirac distribution to electronic systems have so far prevented the experimental observation of multi-gap topologies in real materials. Here, we show that multi-gap topologies and the accompanying phase transitions driven by braiding processes can be readily observed in the bosonic phonon spectra of known monolayer silicates. The associated braiding process can be controlled by means of an electric field and epitaxial strain, and involves, for the first time, more than three bands. Finally, we propose that these conversion processes can be tracked by following the evolution of the Raman spectrum, providing a clear signature for the experimental verification of multi-gap topologies.
The non-Abelian braiding of Majorana fermions is one of the most promising operations providing a key building block for the realization of topological quantum computation. Recently, the chiral Majorana fermions were observed in a hybrid junction btween a quantum anomalous Hall insulator and an s-wave superconductor. Here we show that if a quantum dot or Majorana zero mode couples to the chiral Majorana fermions, the resulting resonant exchange of chiral Majorana fermions can lead to the non-Abelian braiding. Remarkably, any operation in the braid group can be achieved by this scheme. We further propose electrical transport experiments to observe the braiding of four chiral Majorana fermions and demonstrate the non-Abelian braiding statistics in four-terminal devices of the hybrid junctions. Both a conductance peak due to the braiding and the braiding-order dependent conductance are predicted. These findings pave a way to perform any braiding operation of chiral Majorana fermions by electrically controllable quantum dots.
We study the properties of an ultracold Fermi gas loaded in an optical square lattice and subjected to an external and classical non-Abelian gauge field. We show that this system can be exploited as an optical analogue of relativistic quantum electrodynamics, offering a remarkable route to access the exotic properties of massless Dirac fermions with cold atoms experiments. In particular we show that the underlying Minkowski space-time can also be modified, reaching anisotropic regimes where a remarkable anomalous quantum Hall effect and a squeezed Landau vacuum could be observed.