3 research outputs found
Towards identification of a non-abelian state: observation of a quarter of electron charge at quantum Hall state
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 , the observation of
the even denominator 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
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 state, this observation is
the first step toward a full understanding of these new fractional charges