Experimental Demonstration of Fermi Surface Effects at Filling Factor 5/2

Using small wavelength surface acoustic waves (SAW) on ultra-high mobility heterostructures, Fermi surface properties are detected at 5/2 filling factor at temperatures higher than those at which the quantum Hall state forms. An enhanced conductivity is observed at 5/2 by employing sub 0.5 micron wavelength SAW, indicating a quasiparticle mean-free-path substantially smaller than that in the lowest Landau level. These findings are consistent with the presence of a filled Fermi sea of composite fermions, which may pair at lower temperatures to form the 5/2 ground state.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Interference measurements of non-Abelian e/4 & Abelian e/2 quasiparticle braiding

The quantum Hall states at filling factors $\nu=5/2$ and $7/2$ are expected to have Abelian charge $e/2$ quasiparticles and non-Abelian charge $e/4$ quasiparticles. For the first time we report experimental evidence for the non-Abelian nature of excitations at $\nu=7/2$ and examine the fermion parity, a topological quantum number of an even number of non-Abelian quasiparticles, by measuring resistance oscillations as a function of magnetic field in Fabry-P\'erot interferometers using new high purity heterostructures. The phase of observed $e/4$ oscillations is reproducible and stable over long times (hours) near $\nu=5/2$ and $7/2$, indicating stability of the fermion parity. When phase fluctuations are observed, they are predominantly $\pi$ phase flips, consistent with fermion parity change. We also examine lower-frequency oscillations attributable to Abelian interference processes in both states. Taken together, these results constitute new evidence for the non-Abelian nature of $e/4$ quasiparticles; the observed life-time of their combined fermion parity further strengthens the case for their utility for topological quantum computation.Comment: A significantly revised version; 54 double-column pages containing 14 pages of main text + Supplementary Materials. The figures, which include a number of new figures, are now incorporated into the tex

One-Dimensional Theory of the Quantum Hall System

We consider the lowest Landau level on a torus as a function of its circumference $L_1$. When $L_1\to 0$, the ground state at general rational filling fraction is a crystal with a gap--a Tao-Thouless state. For filling fractions $\nu=p/(2pm+1)$, these states are the limits of Laughlin's or Jain's wave functions describing the gapped quantum Hall states when $L_1\to \infty$. For the half-filled Landau level, there is a transition to a Fermi sea of non-interacting neutral dipoles, or rather to a Luttinger liquid modification thereof, at $L_1\sim5$ magnetic lengths. This state is a version of the Rezayi-Read state, and develops continuously into the state that is believed to describe the observed metallic phase as $L_1\to \infty$. Furthermore, the effective Landau level structure that emerges within the lowest Landau level follows from the magnetic symmetries.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Communication Skills Instruction Utilizing Interdisciplinary Peer Teachers: Program Development and Student Perceptions

Lack of curricular time, faculty time, and funding are potential limitations for communication skills training in dentistry. Interdisciplinary collaboration amongst health care faculties could address these limitations. This article describes the development, implementation, and student perceptions of a communication skills program in dentistry. The program has four components: Knowledge, Observation, Simulation, and Experience (KOSE) and spans over the second and third years of dental school. KOSE allows students to obtain knowledge of and observe effective communication skills and practice these skills in the simulated and nonsimulated environment. A key feature of KOSE is the utilization of fourth-year medical and dental students as peer teachers. Evaluation of KOSE was geared toward student perceptions. Cross-sectional data were gathered via written surveys from 143 learners (second- and third-year dental students) in 2006–07. Students perceived the ability to recognize effective communication, demonstrated awareness of their communication strengths and weaknesses, and reported that skills gained were transferable to actual patient care. Interdisciplinary collaboration was a feasible way to address the lack of resources in the development of a communications skills program, which was perceived to be worthwhile by learners

Composite fermions in the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect: Transport at finite wavevector

We consider the conductivity tensor for composite fermions in a close to half-filled Landau band in the temperature regime where the scattering off the potential and the trapped gauge field of random impurities dominates. The Boltzmann equation approach is employed to calculate the quasiclassical transport properties at finite effective magnetic field, wavevector and frequency. We present an exact solution of the kinetic equation for all parameter regimes. Our results allow a consistent description of recently observed surface acoustic wave resonances and other findings.Comment: REVTEX, 4 pages, 1 figur

Stability and effective masses of composite-fermions in the first and second Landau Level

We propose a measure of the stability of composite fermions (CF's) at even-denominator Landau-level filling fractions. Assuming Landau-level mixing effects are not strong, we show that the CF liquid at $\nu=2+1/2$ in the $n=1$ Landau level cannot exist and relate this to the absence of a hierarchy of incompressible states for filling fractions $2+1/3 < \nu < 2+2/3$. We find that a polarized CF liquid should exist at $\nu=2+1/4$. We also show that, for CF states, the variation with system size of the ground state energy of interacting electrons follows that for non-interacting particles in zero magnetic field. We use this to estimate the CF effective masses.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex, PSIZ-TP-940

Computational equivalence of the two inequivalent spinor representations of the braid group in the Ising topological quantum computer

We demonstrate that the two inequivalent spinor representations of the braid group \B_{2n+2}, describing the exchanges of 2n+2 non-Abelian Ising anyons in the Pfaffian topological quantum computer, are equivalent from computational point of view, i.e., the sets of topologically protected quantum gates that could be implemented in both cases by braiding exactly coincide. We give the explicit matrices generating almost all braidings in the spinor representations of the 2n+2 Ising anyons, as well as important recurrence relations. Our detailed analysis allows us to understand better the physical difference between the two inequivalent representations and to propose a process that could determine the type of representation for any concrete physical realization of the Pfaffian quantum computer.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, published versio

Effective mass of composite fermion: a phenomenological fit in with anomalous propagation of surface acoustic wave

We calculate the conductivity associated with the anomalous propagation of a surface acoustic wave above a two-dimensional electron gas at $\nu=1/2$. Murthy-Shankar's middle representation is adopted and a contribution to the response functions beyond the random phase approximation has been taken into account. We give a phenomenological fit for the effective mass of composite fermion in with the experimental data of the anomalous propagation of surface acoustic wave at $\nu=1/2$ and find the phenomenological value of the effective mass is several times larger than the theoretical value $m_{th}^*=6\epsilon/e^2l_{1/2}$ derived from the Hartree-Fock approximation. We compare our phenomenologically fitting composite fermion effective mass with those appeared in the measurements of the activation energy and the Shubnikov-de Haas effect and find that our result is fairly reasonable.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, the longer version of cond-mat/9801131 with crucial corrections, accepted for publication by PR