Probing quantum Hall edge chirality and the anyonic exchange angle with a three-path interferometer

Abstract

An upstream neutral mode can influence quasiparticle tunneling even when electric charge propagates only downstream. We propose a three-path fractional quantum Hall interferometer that probes this directional structure through the flux dependence of average terminal currents. Interference between direct and two-step tunneling first contributes at cubic order in the tunneling amplitudes of three weak quantum point contacts. In the local theory, equal drain voltages separate the downstream and upstream responses: for a purely downstream tunneling excitation, the cubic fundamental Aharonov-Bohm harmonic vanishes at one drain, while the other remains bright. Averaging measurements with exchanged unequal drain voltages extends this separation to a configuration in which all contacts are biased. It requires independent calibration of the electrostatic phase shift and fixed or known tunneling magnitudes. For a selected Abelian excitation with two-point correlation exponent $0<{\Delta }_{\mathbf{\ell }}<1$, the common low-temperature bias power and directional amplitude ratio determine its scaling dimension and principal exchange angle. We also show that a weak static density interaction spanning two tunneling points can activate the dark harmonic without adding an upstream mode. In the high-bias static limit, the first-order Laughlin activated amplitude scales as $E^{2\nu -1}$, where $E$ is the source-drain bias energy and $\nu$ is the filling factor. In the weak localized single-mode infrared regime, the bright harmonic retains its leading scaling and can serve as a reference in the same device. The calculation assumes one coherent tunneling species and common-temperature edge correlations with unresolved propagation times.

21 pages, 3 figures. Substantially revised: corrected cubic terminal-current calculation; chirality test reformulated using equal and exchanged drain voltages; exchange-angle extraction clarified; nonlocal-interaction analysis and appendices revised