title: Topologically protected qubits from a possible non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall state.
abstract: The Pfaffian state is an attractive candidate for the observed quantized Hall plateau at a Landau-level filling fraction nu=5/2. This is particularly intriguing because this state has unusual topological properties, including quasiparticle excitations with non-Abelian braiding statistics. In order to determine the nature of the nu=5/2 state, one must measure the quasiparticle braiding statistics. Here, we propose an experiment which can simultaneously determine the braiding statistics of quasiparticle excitations and, if they prove to be non-Abelian, produce a topologically protected qubit on which a logical Not operation is performed by quasiparticle braiding. Using the measured excitation gap at nu=5/2, we estimate the error rate to be 10(-30) or lower.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Sankar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Das Sarma
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Freedman
authors.forename: Chetan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nayak