From Abelian anyons in moiré materials to non-Abelions in quantum platforms

Anyons, particles with quantum statistics that go beyond that of bosons and fermions, rapidly transitioned from theoretical possibility to reality in the quantum Hall effect. However, the extreme conditions required for those realizations, including strong magnetic fields, have posed limitations. Recently, significant advances have led to the observation of anyons in moiré materials even in the absence of a magnetic field, alongside parallel efforts to realize them in quantum devices. This talk will highlight these exciting developments, with a particular focus on an even more remarkable generalization of quantum statistics represented by non-Abelian anyons, which offer promise for fault-tolerant quantum computing. I will describe how this power of measurements can be leveraged to efficiently create the long sought-after non-Abelian anyons, and the new avenues this opens.

Speaker: Ashvin Vishwanath, Harvard University