Discernible signatures of fractionally charged anyons in a Pfaffian-Laughlin state
Phys. Rev. B 114, 185133 – Published 29 September, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kdx7-18ys
Abstract
Understanding the nature of quasihole excitations, i.e., anyons that have fractional charge and fractional statistics, has been a challenging problem in condensed matter physics. Our theoretical approach to this problem has been to consider a quantum dot containing a few charged particles, Coulomb-coupled to the incompressible fluid. The size of the dot and the separation distance of the dot from the incompressible state strongly influence the energetics of the Laughlin quasiholes. Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy studies of this system have previously been able to probe these quasiholes and have confirmed our estimates of the Laughlin quasihole energies. Turning to the Pfaffian state, we now observe that such a theoretical approach is also able to provide valuable information about the Pfaffian quasiholes, viz., the energy dispersion, the charge density distribution, and the quasihole energy. The energy dispersion of e/4 quasiholes derived here clearly reflects the interaction between the quantum dot and the incompressible Pfaffian state. PL spectroscopy experiments on the 5/2 Pfaffian-Laughlin state could perhaps shed light on the energetics of these elusive quasiparticles that we found in this work.
