arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ady Stern.
Signatures of the non-Abelian statistics of quasi-particles in the $ν=5/2$ quantum Hall state are predicted to be present in the current-voltage characteristics of tunneling through one or two quantum Hall puddles of Landau filling $ν_a$ embedded in a bulk of filling $ν_b$ with $(ν_a,ν_b)=(2,5/2)$ and $(ν_a,ν_b)=(5/2,2)$.
A bilayer system of two-dimensional electron gases in a perpendicular magnetic field exhibits rich phenomena. At total filling factor $ν_{tot} = 1$, as one increases the layer separation, the bilayer system goes from an interlayer coherent exciton condensed state to an incoherent phase of, most likely, two decoupled composite-fermion Fermi liquids. Many questions still remain as to the nature of the transition between these two phases. Recent experiments have demonstrated that spin plays an important role in this transition. Assuming that there is a direct first order transition between the spin-polarized interlayer-coherent quantum Hall state and spin-partially-polarized composite Fermi liquid state, we calculate the phase boundary $(d/l)_c$ as a function of parallel magnetic field, NMR/heat pulse, temperature, and density imbalance, and compare with experimental results. Remarkably good agreement is found between theory and various experiments.
Interference of edge channels is expected to be a prominent tool for studying statistics of charged quasiparticles in the quantum Hall effect (QHE) [A. Stern (2008), Ann. Phys. 1:204; C. Chamon et al. (1997), Phys. Rev. B, 55:2331]. We present here a detailed study of an electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) operating in the QHE regime [C. Chamon et al. (1997), Phys. Rev. B, 55:2331], with the phase of the interfering quasiparticles controlled by the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect. Our main finding is that Coulomb interactions among the electrons dominate the interference, even in a relatively large area FPI, leading to a strong dependence of the area enclosed by the interference loop on the magnetic field. In particular, for a composite edge structure, with a few independent edge channels propagating along the edge, interference of the outmost edge channel (belonging to the lowest Landau level) was insensitive to magnetic field; suggesting a constant enclosed flux. However, when any of the inner edge channels interfered, the enclosed flux decreased when the magnetic field increased. By intentionally varying the enclosed area with a biased metallic gate and observing the periodicity of the interference pattern, charges e (for integer filling factors) and e/3 (for a fractional filling factor) were found to be expelled from the FPI. Moreover, these observations provided also a novel way of detecting the charge of the interfering quasiparticles.
We analyze generalizations of two dimensional topological insulators which can be realized in interacting, time reversal invariant electron systems. These states, which we call fractional topological insulators, contain excitations with fractional charge and statistics in addition to protected edge modes. In the case of s^z conserving toy models, we show that a system is a fractional topological insulator if and only if σ_{sH}/e^* is odd, where σ_{sH} is the spin-Hall conductance in units of e/2π, and e^* is the elementary charge in units of e.
We discuss transport experiments for various non-Abelian quantum Hall states, including the Read-Rezayi series and a paired spin singlet state. We analyze the signatures of the unique characters of these states on Coulomb blockaded transport through large quantum dots. We show that the non-Abelian nature of the states manifests itself through modulations in the spacings between Coulomb blockade peaks as a function of the area of the dot. Even though the current flows only along the edge, these modulations vary with the number of quasiholes that are localized in the bulk of the dot. We discuss the effect of relaxation of edge states on the predicted Coulomb blockade patterns, and show that it may suppress the dependence on the number of bulk quasiholes. We predict the form of the lowest order interference term in a Fabry-Perot interferometer for the spin singlet state. The result indicates that this interference term is suppressed for certain values of the quantum numbers of the collective state of the bulk quasiholes, in agreement with previous findings for other clustered states belonging to the Read-Rezayi series.
It has been predicted that the phase sensitive part of the current through a non-abelian $ν= 5/2$ quantum Hall Fabry-Perot interferometer will depend on the number of localized charged $e/4$ quasiparticles (QPs) inside the interferometer cell. In the limit where all QPs are far from the edge, the leading contribution to the interference current is predicted to be absent if the number of enclosed QPs is odd and present otherwise, as a consequence of the non-abelian QP statistics. The situation is more complicated, however, if a localized QP is close enough to the boundary so that it can exchange a Majorana fermion with the edge via a tunneling process. Here, we derive an exact solution for the dependence of the interference current on the coupling strength for this tunneling process, and confirm a previous prediction that for sufficiently strong coupling, the localized QP is effectively incorporated in the edge and no longer affects the interference pattern. We confirm that the dimensionless coupling strength can be tuned by the source-drain voltage, and we find that not only does the magnitude of the even-odd effect change with the strength of bulk-edge coupling, but in addition, there is a universal shift in the interference phase as a function of coupling strength. Some implications for experiments are discussed at the end.
We show that non-abelian quantum Hall states can be identified by experimental measurements of the temperature-dependence of either the electrochemical potential or the orbital magnetization. The predicted signals of non-abelian statistics are within experimental resolution, and can be clearly distinguished from other contributions under realistic circumstances. The proposed measurement technique also has the potential to resolve spin-ordering transitions in low density electronic systems in the Wigner crystal and strongly-interacting Luttinger liquid regimes.
We consider a quantum dot in the regime of the quantum Hall effect, particularly in Laughlin states and non-Abelian Read-Rezayi states. We find the location of the Coulomb blockade peaks in the conductance as a function of the area of the dot and the magnetic field. When the magnetic field is fixed and the area of the dot is varied, the peaks are equally spaced for the Laughlin states. In contrast, non-Abelian statistics is reflected in modulations of the spacing which depend on the magnetic field.
Topological quantum computation has recently emerged as one of the most exciting approaches to constructing a fault-tolerant quantum computer. The proposal relies on the existence of topological states of matter whose quasiparticle excitations are neither bosons nor fermions, but are particles known as {\it Non-Abelian anyons}, meaning that they obey {\it non-Abelian braiding statistics}. Quantum information is stored in states with multiple quasiparticles, which have a topological degeneracy. The unitary gate operations which are necessary for quantum computation are carried out by braiding quasiparticles, and then measuring the multi-quasiparticle states. The fault-tolerance of a topological quantum computer arises from the non-local encoding of the states of the quasiparticles, which makes them immune to errors caused by local perturbations. To date, the only such topological states thought to have been found in nature are fractional quantum Hall states, most prominently the ν=5/2 state, although several other prospective candidates have been proposed in systems as disparate as ultra-cold atoms in optical lattices and thin film superconductors. In this review article, we describe current research in this field, focusing on the general theoretical concepts of non-Abelian statistics as it relates to topological quantum computation, on understanding non-Abelian quantum Hall states, on proposed experiments to detect non-Abelian anyons, and on proposed architectures for a topological quantum computer. We address both the mathematical underpinnings of topological quantum computation and the physics of the subject using the ν=5/2 fractional quantum Hall state as the archetype of a non-Abelian topological state enabling fault-tolerant quantum computation.
The fractional quantum Hall effect, where plateaus in the Hall resistance at values of coexist with zeros in the longitudinal resistance, results from electron correlations in two dimensions under a strong magnetic field. Current flows along the edges carried by charged excitations (quasi particles) whose charge is a fraction of the electron charge. While earlier research concentrated on odd denominator fractional values of $ν$, the observation of the even denominator $ν=5/2$ state sparked a vast interest. This state is conjectured to be characterized by quasiparticles of charge e/4, whose statistics is non-abelian. In other words, interchanging of two quasi particles may modify the state of the system to an orthogonal one, and does not just add a phase as in for fermions or bosons. As such, these quasiparticles may be useful for the construction of a topological quantum computer. Here we report data of shot noise generated by partitioning edge currents in the $ν=5/2$ state, consistent with the charge of the quasiparticle being e/4, and inconsistent with other potentially possible values, such as e/2 and e. While not proving the non-abelian nature of the $ν=5/2$ state, this observation is the first step toward a full understanding of these new fractional charges.
We consider the two-terminal conductance of a one-dimensional Mott insulator undergoing the commensurate-incommensurate quantum phase transition to a conducting state. We treat the leads as Luttinger liquids. At a specific value of compressibility of the leads, corresponding to the Luther-Emery point, the conductance can be described in terms of the free propagation of non-interacting fermions with charge e/\sqrt{2}. At that point, the temperature dependence of the conductance across the quantum phase transition is described by a Fermi function. The deviation from the Luther-Emery point in the leads changes the temperature dependence qualitatively. In the metallic state, the low-temperature conductance is determined by the properties of the leads, and is described by the conventional Luttinger liquid theory. In the insulating state, conductance occurs via activation of e/\sqrt{2} charges, and is independent of the Luttinger liquid compressibility.
The dichotomy between fermions and bosons is at the root of many physical phenomena, from metallic conduction of electricity to super-fluidity, and from the periodic table to coherent propagation of light. The dichotomy originates from the symmetry of the quantum mechanical wave function to the interchange of two identical particles. In systems that are confined to two spatial dimensions particles that are neither fermions nor bosons, coined "anyons", may exist. The fractional quantum Hall effect offers an experimental system where this possibility is realized. In this paper we present the concept of anyons, we explain why the observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect almost forces the notion of anyons upon us, and we review several possible ways for a direct observation of the physics of anyons. Furthermore, we devote a large part of the paper to non-abelian anyons, motivating their existence from the point of view of trial wave functions, giving a simple exposition of their relation to conformal field theories, and reviewing several proposals for their direct observation.
Recent schemes for experimentally probing non-abelian statistics in the quantum Hall effect are based on geometries where current-carrying quasiparticles flow along edges that encircle bulk quasiparticles, which are localized. Here we consider one such scheme, the Fabry-Perot interferometer, and analyze how its interference patterns are affected by a coupling that allows tunneling of neutral Majorana fermions between the bulk and edge. While at weak coupling this tunneling degrades the interference signal, we find that at strong coupling, the bulk quasiparticle becomes essentially absorbed by the edge and the intereference signal is fully restored.
We show how shot noise in an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer in the fractional quantum Hall regime probes the charge and statistics of quantum Hall quasiparticles. The dependence of the noise on the magnetic flux through the interferometer allows for a simple way to distinguish Abelian from non-Abelian quasiparticle statistics. In the Abelian case, the Fano factor (in units of the electron charge) is always lower than unity. In the non-Abelian case, the maximal Fano factor as a function of the magnetic flux exceeds one.
We study the superfluid phases of quasi-2D atomic Fermi gases interacting via a p-wave Feshbach resonance. We calculate the absorption spectra of these phases under a hyperfine transition, for both non-rotating and rotating superfluids. We show that one can identify the different phases of the p-wave superfluid from the absorption spectrum. The absorption spectrum shows clear signatures of the existence of Majorana zero modes at the cores of vortices of the weakly-pairing $p_x+ip_y$ phase.
We study the effect of parametric excitations on systems of confined ultracold Bose atoms in periodically modulated optical lattices. In the regime where Mott insulating and Superfluid domains coexist, we show that the dependence of the energy absorbed by the system on the frequency of the modulation serves as an experimental probe for the existence and properties of Mott insulating-Superfluid domains.
We propose an experiment to probe the unconventional quantum statistics of quasi-particles in fractional quantum Hall states by measurement of current noise. The geometry we consider is that of a Hall bar where two quantum point contacts introduce two interfering amplitudes for back-scattering. Thermal fluctuations of the number of quasi-particles enclosed between the two point contacts introduce current noise, which reflects the statistics of the quasi-particles. We analyze abelian $ν=1/q$ states and the non-abelian $ν=5/2$ state.
Following recent experiments, we consider current flow in two dimensional electronic systems in the quantum Hall regime where a gradient in the electron density induces a spatial variation in the Hall resistivity. Describing the system in terms of a spatially varying local resistivity tensor, we show that in such a system the current density is generically non-uniform, with the current being pushed towards one side of the sample. We show that, for sufficiently large density gradient, the voltage along that side is determined by the change of the Hall resistivity, and is independent of the microscopic longitudinal resistivity, while the voltage on the opposite side is small and determined by both longitudinal and Hall resistivities. We solve some particular models in detail, and propose ways by which the microscopic longitudinal resistivity may be extracted from measurements of the longitudinal voltage on both sides of the sample.