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

Journal article

Recent experiments [Banerjee et al, arXiv:1710.00492] have measured thermal conductance of the ν = 5/2 edge in a GaAs electron gas and found it to be quantized as K ≈ 5/2 (in appropriate dimensionless units). This result is unexpected, as prior numerical work predicts that the ν = 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.

Authors: Simon, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Journal: Physical Review B
• Volume: 97
• Issue: 12
• Article number: 121406(R)
• Publication date: 2018-03-29
• Acceptance date: 2018-03-16
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.97.121406
• EISSN: 2469-9969
• ISSN: 2469-9950