English

Theory of non-Abelian Fabry-Perot interferometry in topological insulators

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2010-05-13 v1 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

Interferometry of non-Abelian edge excitations is a useful tool in topological quantum computing. In this paper we present a theory of a non-Abelian edge state interferometer in a 3D topological insulator brought in proximity to an s-wave superconductor. The non-Abelian edge excitations in this system have the same statistics as in the previously studied 5/2 fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effect and chiral p-wave superconductors. There are however crucial differences between the setup we consider and these systems, like the need for a converter between charged and neutral excitations and the neutrality of the non-Abelian excitations. These differences manifest themselves in a temperature scaling exponent of -7/4 for the conductance instead of -3/2 as in the 5/2 FQH effect.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0912.4716,
  title  = {Theory of non-Abelian Fabry-Perot interferometry in topological insulators},
  author = {Johan Nilsson and A. R. Akhmerov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0912.4716},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

12 pages, 5 figures