Topological blockade and measurement of topological charge

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method called topological blockade to detect and measure the topological charge of quasiparticles in the fractional quantum Hall effect, enabling insights into non-Abelian anyonic statistics and topological quantum computation.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of topological blockade as a novel technique for reading out topological charge and measuring braiding statistics of quasiparticles.

Findings

Topological blockade can effectively detect topological charge.

The method allows for measurement of non-Abelian braiding statistics.

It enables coupling between topological and conventional qubits.

Abstract

The fractionally charged quasiparticles appearing in the 5/2 fractional quantum Hall plateau are predicted to have an extra non-local degree of freedom, known as topological charge. We show how this topological charge can block the tunnelling of these particles, and how such 'topological blockade' can be used to readout their topological charge. We argue that the short time scale required for this measurement is favorable for the detection of the non-Abelian anyonic statistics of the quasiparticles. We also show how topological blockade can be used to measure braiding statistics, and to couple a topological qubit with a conventional one.