Proposal for bulk measurement of braid statistics in the fractional quantum Hall effect

Abstract

The quasiparticles (QPs) or quasiholes (QHs) of fractional quantum Hall states have been predicted to obey fractional braid statistics, which refers to the Berry phase (in addition to the usual Aharonov-Bohm phase) associated with an exchange of two QPs or two QHs or, equivalently, to half of the phase associated with a QP or QH going around another. Certain phase slips in interference experiments in the fractional quantum Hall regime have been attributed to fractional braid statistics, where the interference probes the Berry phase associated with a closed path which has segments along the edges of the sample as well as through the bulk (where tunneling occurs). Noting that QPs and QHs with sharply quantized fractional charge and fractional statistics do not exist at the edge of a fractional quantum Hall state due to the absence of a gap there, we provide arguments that the existence of composite fermions at the edge is sufficient for understanding the primary experimental observations; unlike QPs and QHs, composite fermions are known to be well defined in compressible states without a gap. We further propose that transport through a closed tunneling loop contained entirely in the bulk can, in principle, allow measurement of the braid statistics in a way that the braiding object explicitly has a fractionally quantized charge over the entire loop. Optimal parameters for this experimental geometry are determined from quantitative calculations.