Interacting Dirac fermions and the rise of Pfaffians in graphene

TL;DR

This paper explores the emergence of Pfaffian states in bilayer graphene under specific conditions, revealing potential for stable non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall states influenced by tunable interactions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the possibility of realizing and tuning 1/2-FQHE Pfaffian states in bilayer graphene, unlike in monolayer graphene or conventional systems.

Findings

Pfaffian states can occur in bilayer graphene with AB stacking.

The 1/2-FQHE state properties depend nonmonotonically on magnetic field.

Bilayer graphene may host more stable 1/2-FQHE states than traditional systems.

Abstract

Fractional Quantum Hall effect (FQHE) is a unique many-body phenomenon, which was discovered in a two-dimensional electron system placed in a strong perpendicular magnetic field. It is entirely due to the electron-electron interactions within a given Landau level. For special filling factors of the Landau level, a many-particle incompressible state with a finite collective gap is formed. Among these states, when the Landau level is half filled, there is a special FQHE state that is described by the Pfaffian function and the state supports charged excitations that obey non-Abelian statistics. Such a $1/2$-FQHE state can be realized only for a special profile of the electron-electron potential. For example, for conventional electron systems, the $1/2$-FQHE state occurs only in the second Landau level, while in a graphene monolayer, no $1/2$-FQHE state can be found in any Landau level. Another type of low-dimensional system is the bilayer graphene, which consists of two graphene monolayers coupled through the inter-layer hopping. The system is quasi-two-dimensional, which makes it possible to tune the inter-electron interaction potential by applying either the bias voltage or the magnetic field that is applied parallel to the bilayer. It so happens that in the bilayer graphene with AB staking, there is one Landau level per valley where the $1/2$-FQHE state can indeed be present. The properties of that $1/2$-FQHE state have a nonmonotonic dependence on the applied magnetic field and this can be even more stable than the one discovered in conventional electron systems.