Interference, Coulomb blockade, and the identification of non-Abelian quantum Hall states

We study electronic-transport phenomena in a Fabry-Perot interferometer in the fractional quantum Hall regime in two limits. We analyze the lowest-order interference pattern in a nearly open interferometer (weak-backscattering limit) and the temperature dependence of the Coulomb-blockade transmission peaks in a nearly closed interferometer (strong-backscattering limit). For both limits, we consider two series of fractional quantized Hall states, one with Abelian and one with non-Abelian quasiparticles. We show that the results obtained in the two limits give identical information about the quasiparticle statistics. Although the experimental signatures of the Abelian and non-Abelian states may be similar in some circumstances, we argue that the two cases may be distinguished due to the sensitivity of the Abelian states to local perturbations, to which the non-Abelian states are insensitive. ©2010 The American Physical Society