Coherent Transmutation of Electrons into Fractionalized Anyons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how electrons can be coherently transformed into fractionalized anyons within quantum spin liquids, revealing new boundary states and proposing experimental signatures for fractionalization.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism for coherent electron transmutation into fractionalized quasiparticles in quantum spin liquids, highlighting topologically robust boundary states and experimental detection methods.

Findings

Electrons can be coherently transmuted into fractionalized anyons in QSLs.

Distinct topological boundary states enable electron fractionalization.

Proposed experimental signatures to detect fractionalization.

Abstract

Electrons have three quantized properties -- charge, spin, and Fermi statistics -- that are directly responsible for a vast array of phenomena. Here we show how these properties can be coherently and dynamically stripped from the electron as it enters certain exotic states of matter known as a quantum spin liquid (QSL). In a QSL, electron spins collectively form a highly entangled quantum state that gives rise to emergent gauge forces and fractionalization of spin, charge, and statistics. We show that certain QSLs host distinct, topologically robust boundary types, some of which allow the electron to coherently enter the QSL as a fractionalized quasiparticle, leaving its spin, charge, or statistics behind. We use these ideas to propose a number of universal, conclusive experimental signatures that would establish fractionalization in QSLs.