Is the fractional Chern insulator-superconductor transition in twisted MoTe2 direct?
Abstract
The observation of superconducting behaviour near a fractional Chern insulator in twisted MoTe2 has sparked excitement about a possible direct "anyon superconducting" transition between a topologically ordered and a symmetry-broken phase. We carefully examine the experimentally measured transport data in the relevant region of the low-temperature tMoTe2 phase diagram and propose a scenario where the nearby reentrant integer quantum Hall effect (RIQHE) acts as an intervening phase between the two. While the RIQHE is most prominent at large displacement fields, we propose that it extends to smaller fields at very low temperatures. Based on this picture, we model the sample as a patchwork of the three phases and show that such a model can explain the main qualitative features of the transport phase diagram, including its dependence on temperature and displacement field. The model predicts that at lower electronic temperatures the apparent FCI-SC transition at zero displacement field should split into two transitions separated by a narrow RIQHE region.
Related
- Direct transition from a fractional Chern insulator to a topological superconductor
- Holographic subregion complexity in insulator/superconductor transition
- Parafermions in fractional Chern insulator-superconductor heterostructures: the role of spin polarization
- Topological and kinetic origins of fractional thermal conductance at the topological insulator--superconductor interface
- Deconfined criticality between an antiferromagnetic insulator and a nodal d-wave superconductor: a quantum Monte Carlo study
BibTeX
@misc{lotric2026fractional,
title = {{Is the fractional Chern insulator-superconductor transition in twisted MoTe$_2$ direct?}},
author = {Tevž Lotrič and Steven H. Simon},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.30368},
eprint = {2609.30368},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.30368},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Is the fractional Chern insulator-superconductor transition in twisted MoTe_2 direct?
AU - Tevž Lotrič
AU - Steven H. Simon
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/24
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.30368
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.30368
AB - The observation of superconducting behaviour near a fractional Chern insulator in twisted MoTe_2 has sparked excitement about a possible direct "anyon superconducting" transition between a topologically ordered and a symmetry-broken phase. We carefully examine the experimentally measured transport data in the relevant region of the low-temperature tMoTe_2 phase diagram and propose a scenario where the nearby reentrant integer quantum Hall effect (RIQHE) acts as an intervening phase between the two. While the RIQHE is most prominent at large displacement fields, we propose that it extends to smaller fields at very low temperatures. Based on this picture, we model the sample as a patchwork of the three phases and show that such a model can explain the main qualitative features of the transport phase diagram, including its dependence on temperature and displacement field. The model predicts that at lower electronic temperatures the apparent FCI-SC transition at zero displacement field should split into two transitions separated by a narrow RIQHE region.
ER -