A Quantum Impurity Model for Anyons

Abstract

One of the hallmarks of quantum statistics, tightly entwined with the concept of topological phases of matter, is the prediction of anyons. Although anyons are predicted to be realized in certain fractional quantum Hall systems, they have not yet been unambiguously detected in experiment. Here we introduce a simple quantum impurity model, where bosonic or fermionic impurities turn into anyons as a consequence of their interaction with the surrounding many-particle bath. A cloud of phonons dresses each impurity in such a way that it effectively attaches fluxes/vortices to it and thereby converts it into an Abelian anyon. The corresponding quantum impurity model, first, provides a new approach to the numerical solution of the many-anyon problem, along with a new concrete perspective of anyons as emergent quasiparticles built from composite bosons or fermions. More importantly, the model paves the way towards realizing anyons using impurities in crystal lattices as well as ultracold gases. In particular, we consider two heavy electrons interacting with a two-dimensional lattice crystal in a magnetic field, and show that when the impurity-bath system is rotated at the cyclotron frequency, impurities behave as anyons as a consequence of the angular momentum exchange between the impurities and the bath. A possible experimental realization is proposed by identifying the statistics parameter in terms of the mean square distance of the impurities and the magnetization of the impurity-bath system, both of which are accessible to experiment. Another proposed application are impurities immersed in a two-dimensional weakly interacting Bose gas.