Charge 2e/3 Superconductivity and Topological Degeneracies without Localized Zero Modes in Bilayer Fractional Quantum Hall States.

Abstract

It has been recently shown that non-Abelian defects with localized parafermion zero modes can arise in conventional Abelian fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states. Here we propose an alternate route to creating, manipulating, and measuring topologically protected degeneracies in bilayer FQH states coupled to superconductors, without the creation of localized parafermion zero modes. We focus mainly on electron-hole bilayers, with a ±1/3 Laughlin FQH state in each layer, with boundaries that are proximity coupled to a superconductor. We show that the superconductor induces charge 2e/3 quasiparticle-pair condensation at each boundary of the FQH state, and that this leads to (i)topologically protected degeneracies that can be measured through charge sensing experiments and (ii)a fractional charge 2e/3 ac Josephson effect. We demonstrate that an analog of non-Abelian braiding is possible, despite the absence of a localized zero mode. We discuss several practical advantages of this proposal over previous work, and also several generalizations.