Theory of Disorder-Induced Half-Integer Thermal Hall Conductance

David F. Mross, Yuval Oreg, Ady Stern, Gilad Margalit, Moty Heiblum

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The thermal Hall conductance in the half-filled first Landau level was recently measured to take the quantized noninteger value κxy=5/2 (in units of temperature times π2kB2/3h), which indicates a non-Abelian phase of matter. Such exotic states have long been predicted to arise at this filling factor, but the measured value disagrees with numerical studies, which predict κxy=3/2 or 7/2. We resolve this contradiction by invoking the disorder-induced formation of mesoscopic puddles with locally κxy=3/2 or 7/2. Interactions between these puddles generate a coherent macroscopic state that exhibits a plateau with quantized κxy=5/2. The non-Abelian quasiparticles characterizing this phase are distinct from those of the microscopic puddles and, by the same mechanism, could even emerge from a system comprised of microscopic Abelian puddles.

Original languageEnglish
Article number026801
Number of pages6
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume121
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 9 Jul 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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