Interpretation of thermal conductance of the ν=5/2 edge

Abstract

Recent experiments [Banerjee et al, arXiv:1710.00492] have measured thermal conductance of the nu=5/2 edge in a GaAs electron gas and found it to be quantized as K \approx 5/2 (in appropriate dimensionless units). This result is unexpected, as prior numerical work predicts that the nu=5/2 state should be the Anti-Pfaffian phase of matter, which should have quantized K=3/2. The purpose of this paper is to propose a possible solution to this conflict: if the Majorana edge mode of the Anti-Pfaffian does not thermally equilibrate with the other edge modes, then K=5/2 is expected. I briefly discuss a possible reason for this nonequilibration, and what should be examined further to determine if this is the case.