Fractionalization of minimal excitations in integer quantum Hall edge channels

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how Lorentzian and rectangular voltage pulses fractionalize into smaller excitations in quantum Hall edge channels, revealing signatures of interactions through electron/hole pair production and proposing an experimental setup for measurement.

Contribution

It provides an exact theoretical analysis of pulse fractionalization in quantum Hall edges using bosonization and Floquet scattering, linking pulse shape, interactions, and electron/hole pair production.

Findings

Fractionalization causes pulses to split into smaller excitations reflecting interaction effects.

Electron/hole pair production signatures reveal fractionalization of excitations.

Proposes an experimental setup to measure and reconstruct single electron coherence before and after fractionalization.

Abstract

A theoretical study of the single electron coherence properties of Lorentzian and rectangular pulses is presented. By combining bosonization and the Floquet scattering approach, the effect of interactions on a periodic source of voltage pulses is computed exactly. When such excitations are injected into one of the channels of a system of two copropagating quantum Hall edge channels, they fractionalize into pulses whose charge and shape reflects the properties of interactions. We show that the dependence of fractionalization induced electron/hole pair production in the pulses amplitude contains clear signatures of the fractionalization of the individual excitations. We propose an experimental setup combining a source of Lorentzian pulses and an Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometer to measure interaction induced electron/hole pair production and more generally to reconstruct single electron coherence of these excitations before and after their fractionalization.