Decoherence of Anyonic Charge in Interferometry Measurements
Parsa Bonderson, Kirill Shtengel, Johannes K. Slingerland
We examine interferometric measurements of the topological charge of (non-Abelian) anyons. The target's topological charge is measured from its effect on the interference of probe particles sent through the interferometer. We find that superpositions of distinct anyonic charges a and a' in the target decohere (exponentially in the number of probes particles used) when the probes have nontrivial monodromy with the charges that may be fused with a to give a'.
arXiv:quant-ph/0608119•Physical Review Letters•Feb 12, 2007•25 citations