Interferometry Measurements of Anyonic Charge

ORAL

Abstract

We examine interferometric measurements of the topological charge of (possibly non-Abelian) anyons. Such measurements are essential to the implementations of topological quantum computation which have been proposed in the context of quantum Hall states. Anyons are placed in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and their topological charge is determined from the effect it has on the interference of probe particles sent through the interferometer. We find that superpositions of distinct anyonic charges in the target collapse when the probe particles have nontrivial monodromy with the differences between the anyonic charges.

*This work was supported in part by the NSF under Grant No. PHY-0456720 and PHY99-07949, and the NSA under ARO Contract No. W911NF-05-1-0294.

Authors

  • Parsa Bonderson

    • Caltech
  • Johannes Slingerland

    • UC Riverside / Caltech
  • Kirill Shtengel

    • UC Riverside