Particle Hole Symmetry Breaking In the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect at $\nu = \frac{5}{2}$

ORAL

Abstract

The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) is widely studied because of its exotic topological phases. The FQHE at $\nu = \frac{5}{2}$ is interesting because it supports excitations of non-abelian quasiparticles. These non-abelian particles are one possible candidate for use as qubits in topological quantum computations. The leading theoretical description of the FQHE at $\nu = \frac{5}{2}$ is the Moore-Reed Pfaffian and its particle hole conjugate the anti-Pfaffian. The Pfaffian and the anti-Pfaffian are the exact ground states of a three body Hamiltonian ($H_3$) and its particle hole conjugate ($H^\prime_3$), respectively. The Pfaffian breaks particle hole symmetry (PHS) explicitly while the physical interaction (Coulomb) is largely PHS. We define a PHS Hamiltonian (H$_2$) and ask is PHS breaking necessary in order to produce a Pfaffian ground state? To answer, we study $H(\alpha)= (1-\alpha)H_3 + \alpha H_2$ and tune alpha from 0 to 1. We show that the ground and low energy states for $H_2$ and $H_3$ remain adiabatically connected. This adiabatic connection shows the low energy states for $H_2$ and $H_3$ are in the same universality class.

*NSF DMR-1508290

Authors

  • William D. Hutzel

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, California 90840, USA
  • John J. McCord

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, California 90840, USA
  • Ben Stern

    • Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
  • P. Raum

    • Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
  • Hao Wang

    • Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzen 518055, China
  • V. W. Scarola

    • Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
  • Michael R. Peterson

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, California 90840, USA