Identification and Control of Neutral Anyons

Beyond the well-known fermions and bosons, anyons-an exotic class of particles-emerge in the fractional quantum Hall effect and exhibit fractional quantum statistics. Anyons can be categorized by their charge, with extensive research focused on those carrying fractional charge, while charge-neutral anyons in 2D electron liquids remain largely unexplored. Here, we introduce bilayer excitons as a new pathway to realizing charge-neutral anyons. By pairing quasiparticles and quasiholes from Laughlin states, we report bilayer excitons that obey fractional quantum statistics. Through layer-asymmetric field-effect doping, we achieve precise control of the anyon population, stabilizing anyonic dipoles at temperatures below the charge gap. Furthermore, we investigate neutral anyons in even-denominator FQHE states, which are likely described by non-Abelian wavefunctions. These findings open the door to exploring non-Abelian statistics in neutral anyons, with the potential to reshape future research in topological quantum phases.
Comment: 9 pages for main text, 4 main figures, total of 16 pages, total of 6 figures