Non-Abelian braiding in Abelian Fractional Quantum Hall Phases from realistic interactions

Abstract

We propose a method of realizing non-Abelian braiding of fractionalized quasiholes in the Laughlin fractional quantum Hall phase at $\nu=1/3$ with realistic two-body interactions within the lowest Landau level. It is numerically shown that low-lying gapped excitations near $\nu=1/3$ are contained almost entirely within the null space of the three-body Moore-Read model Hamiltonian. They are thus quantum fluids of non-Abelian quasiholes that are in principle physically accessible. In particular, Laughlin ground state can be described as a fluid of ``$\psi$-type" quasiholes formed by binding a magnetic flux with a Majorana fermion (MF), and the Laughlin quasiholes are described by the ``$1$-type'' quasiholes, which are magnetic fluxes without a MF attached. Within the Laughlin phase, Laughlin quasiholes can be locally fractionalized into non-Abelian quasiholes, when the strong attraction between them is overcome by properly designed one-body electronstatic trapping potentials. Extensive numerics with proper finite-size scaling corroborate this physical picture, and our study points to the possibility of realizing non-Abelian braiding within an Abelian topological phase in experiment without the need for fine-tuning realistic electron-electron interaction.