Chang-Yu Hou

Electron fractionalization in two-dimensional graphenelike structures

Electron fractionalization is intimately related to topology. In one-dimensional systems, fractionally charged states exist at domain walls between degenerate vacua. In two-dimensional systems, fractionalization exists in quantum Hall fluids, where time-reversal symmetry is broken by a large external magnetic field. Recently, there has been a tremendous effort in the search for examples of fractionalization in two-dimensional systems with time-reversal symmetry. In this Letter, we show that fractionally charged topological excitations exist on graphenelike structures, where quasiparticles are described by two flavors of Dirac fermions and time-reversal symmetry is respected. The topological zero modes are mathematically similar to fractional vortices in p-wave superconductors. They correspond to a twist in the phase in the mass of the Dirac fermions, akin to cosmic strings in particle physics.

Corner junction as a probe of helical edge states.

We propose and analyze interedge tunneling in a quantum spin Hall corner junction as a means to probe the helical nature of the edge states. We show that electron-electron interactions in the one-dimensional helical edge states result in Luttinger parameters for spin and charge that are intertwined, and thus rather different from those for a quantum wire with spin rotation invariance. Consequently, we find that the four-terminal conductance in a corner junction has a distinctive form that could be used as evidence for the helical nature of the edge states.

Electron fractionalization for two-dimensional Dirac fermions

Fermion-number fractionalization without breaking of time-reversal symmetry was recently demonstrated for a field theory in (2 + 1)-dimensional space and time that describes the couplings between massive Dirac fermions, a complex-valued Higgs field carrying an axial gauge charge of 2, and a U(1) axial gauge field. Charge fractionalization occurs whenever the Higgs field either supports vortices by itself, or when these vortices are accompanied by half-vortices in the axial gauge field. The fractional charge is computed by three different techniques. A formula for the fractional charge is given as a function of a parameter in the Dirac Hamiltonian that breaks the spectral energy-reflection symmetry. In the presence of a charge ±1 vortex in the Higgs field only, the fractional charge varies continuously and thus can take irrational values. The simultaneous presence of a half-vortex in the axial gauge field and a charge ±1 vortex in the Higgs field re-rationalizes the fractional charge to the value 1/2.

Wormhole Geometry for Entrapping Topologically Protected Qubits in Non-Abelian Quantum Hall States and Probing Them with Voltage and Noise Measurements

We study a tunneling geometry defined by a single point-contact constriction that brings to close vicinity two points sitting at the same edge of a quantum Hall liquid, shortening the trip between the otherwise spatially separated points along the normal chiral edge path. This wormhole-like geometry allows for entrapping bulk quasiparticles between the edge path and the tunnel junction, possibly realizing a topologically protected qubit if the quasiparticles have non-Abelian statistics. We show how either noise or simpler voltage measurements along the edge can probe the non-Abelian nature of the trapped quasiparticles.

Materials Design from Nonequilibrium Steady States: Driven Graphene as a Tunable Semiconductor with Topological Properties

Controlling the properties of materials by driving them out of equilibrium is an exciting prospect that has only recently begun to be explored. In this Letter we give a striking theoretical example of such materials design: a tunable gap in monolayer graphene is generated by exciting a particular optical phonon. We show that the system reaches a steady state whose transport properties are the same as if the system had a static electronic gap, controllable by the driving amplitude. Moreover, the steady state displays topological phenomena: there are chiral edge currents, which circulate a fractional charge e/2 per rotation cycle, with the frequency set by the optical phonon frequency.

Junctions of three quantum wires for spin 1/2 electrons

We study the effects of electron-electron interactions on the transport properties of a junction of three quantum wires enclosing a magnetic flux. The wires are modeled as single channel spin-

General method for calculating the universal conductance of strongly correlated junctions of multiple quantum wires

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Junctions of multiple quantum wires with different Luttinger parameters

Tomonaga\char21{}Luttinger liquids. The system exhibits a rich phase diagram as a function of the electronic interaction strength, which includes a chiral fixed point with an asymmetric current flow highly sensitive to the sign of the flux and another fixed point where pair tunneling dominates, which is similar to the case of spinless electrons. While in the case of spinless electrons the perturbations that correspond to unequal couplings between the three wires are always irrelevant, we find that, when the electron spin is included, there are small regions in the phase diagram where a current flows only between two of the wires and the third wire is decoupled.

How to Find Conductance Tensors of Quantum Multiwire Junctions through Static Calculations: Application to an Interacting Y Junction

We develop a method to extract the universal conductance of junctions of multiple quantum wires, a property of systems connected to reservoirs, from static ground-state computations in closed finite systems. The method is based on a key relationship, derived within the framework of boundary conformal field theory, between the conductance tensor and certain ground state correlation functions. Our results provide a systematic way of studying quantum transport in the presence of strong electron-electron interactions using efficient numerical techniques such as the standard time-independent density-matrix renormalization-group method. We give a step-by-step recipe for applying the method and present several tests and benchmarks. As an application of the method, we calculate the conductance of the M fixed point of a Y junction of Luttinger liquids for several values of the Luttinger parameter

Masses in graphenelike two-dimensional electronic systems: Topological defects in order parameters and their fractional exchange statistics

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