Fractional-statistics-induced entanglement from Andreev-like tunneling

Abstract

Abstract The role of anyonic statistics stands as a cornerstone in the landscape of topological quantum techniques. While recent years have brought forth encouraging and persuasive strides in detecting anyons, a significant facet remains unexplored, especially in view of connecting anyonic physics to quantum information platforms—whether and how entanglement can be generated by anyonic braiding. Here, we demonstrate that even when two anyonic subsystems (represented by anyonic beams) are connected only by electron tunneling, entanglement between them, manifesting fractional statistics, is generated. To demonstrate this physics, we rely on a platform where fractional quantum Hall edges are bridged by a quantum point contact that allows only transmission of fermions (so-called Andreev-like tunneling). This invokes the physics of two-beam collisions in an anyonic Hong-Ou-Mandel collider, accompanied by a process that we dub anyon-quasihole braiding. We define an entanglement pointer—a current-noise-based function tailored to quantify entanglement associated with quasiparticle fractional statistics. Our work, which exposes, both in theory and in experiment, entanglement associated with anyonic statistics and braiding, prospectively paves the way to the exploration of entanglement induced by non-Abelian statistics.