Time-domain braiding of anyons

TL;DR

This paper explores the unique time-dependent tunneling behavior of anyons in a fractional quantum Hall fluid, demonstrating how braiding influences tunneling timescales and introducing a new method for characterizing anyons.

Contribution

It presents the first time-domain measurement of anyon braiding effects on tunneling timescales in a fractional quantum Hall system.

Findings

Braiding increases the tunneling timescale of anyons.

Tunneling timescale depends on temperature and edge state dynamics.

Contrasts with electron tunneling where braiding is absent.

Abstract

Contrary to fermions and bosons, anyons are quasiparticles that keep a robust memory of particle exchanges via a braiding phase factor. This provides them with unique dynamical properties so far unexplored. When an anyon excitation is emitted toward a quantum point contact (QPC) in a fractional quantum Hall (FQH) fluid, this memory translates into tunneling events that may occur long after the anyon excitation has exited the QPC. Here, we use triggered anyon pulses incident on a QPC in a $\nu= 1/3$ FQH fluid to investigate anyon tunneling in the time domain. We observe that braiding increases the tunneling timescale, which is set by the temperature and the anyon scaling dimension that characterizes the edge state dynamics. This contrasts with the electron behavior where braiding is absent and the tunneling timescale is set by the temporal width of the generated electron pulses. Our experiment introduces time-domain measurements for characterizing the braiding phase and scaling dimension of anyons.