Thermal conductance and noise of Majorana modes along interfaced ν=5/2 fractional quantum Hall states

Abstract

Identifying the topological order of the fractional quantum Hall state at filling ν=5/2 is an important step towards realizing non-Abelian Majorana modes in condensed matter physics. However, to unambiguously distinguish between various proposals for this order is a formidable challenge. Here, we present a detailed study of transport along interfaced edge segments of fractional quantum Hall states hosting non-Abelian Majorana modes. With an incoherent model approach, we compute, for edge segments based on Pfaffian, anti-Pfaffian, and particle-hole-Pfaffian topological orders, thermal conductances, voltage biased charge current noise, and delta-T noise. We determine how the thermal equilibration of edge modes impacts these observables and identify the temperature scalings of transitions between regimes of differently quantized thermal conductances. In combination with recent experimental data, we use our results to estimate thermal and charge equilibration lengths in real devices. We also propose an experimental setup, which permits measuring several transport observables for interfaced fractional quantum Hall edges in a single device. It can, e.g., be used to rule out edge reconstruction effects. In this context, we further point out some subtleties in two-terminal thermal conductance measurements and how to remedy them. Our findings are consistent with recent experimental results pointing towards a particle-hole-Pfaffian topological order at filling ν=5/2 in GaAs/AlGaAs, and provide further means to pinpoint the edge structure at this filling and possibly also other exotic fractional quantum Hall states.