Abstract
Protected edge modes are the cornerstone of topological states of matter. The simplest example is provided by the integer quantum Hall state at Landau level filling unity, which should feature a single chiral mode carrying electronic excitations. In the presence of a smooth confining potential it was hitherto believed that this picture may only be partially modified by the appearance of additional counterpropagating integer-charge modes. Here, we demonstrate the breakdown of this paradigm: The system favors the formation of edge modes supporting fractional excitations. This accounts for previous observations, and leads to additional predictions amenable to experimental tests.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | L121302 |
| Journal | Physical Review B |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 29 Mar 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:©2021 American Physical Society.
Funding
Acknowledgments. We acknowledge useful discussions with M. Heiblum and J. Park. U.K. was supported by the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences at Tel Aviv University and by the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Computational Molecular and Material Science. M.G. and Y.G. were supported by the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology (Contract No. 3-12419). M.G. was also supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF, Grant No. 227/15) and U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF, Grant No. 2016224). Y.G. was also supported by CRC 183 (project C01), the Minerva Foundation, DFG Grant No. RO 2247/8-1, DFG Grant No. MI 658/10-1, and the GIF Grant No. I-1505-303.10/2019.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Minerva Foundation | |
| Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft | MI 658/10-1, RO 2247/8-1 |
| German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development | I-1505-303.10/2019 |
| United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation | 2016224, CRC 183 |
| Israel Science Foundation | 227/15 |
| Tel Aviv University | |
| Ministry of science and technology, Israel | 3-12419 |