Probing non-Abelian statistics with quantum Hall interferometry

by Kirill Shtengel (University of California, Riverside)

Wednesday 22 Sept 2010, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Stockholm

FA31

Topologically ordered phases of matter have recently become a focus of much attention, both theoretical and experimental. In two spatial dimensions such phases may support anyons – quasiparticles that are neither bosons nor fermions. Moreover, anyons with non-Abelian statistics can occur, particularly in the fractional quantum Hall regime. In this talk, I will focus on solid state interferometers designed to detect such exotic statistics. I will discuss recent experiments in the the quantum Hall regime at 5/2 filling where the evidence for the existence of non-Abelian anyons may have in fact been observed for the first time. I will also mention potential applications of such interferometeric schemes for topological quantum computation.