Thermoelectric probe for neutral edge modes in the fractional quantum Hall regime.

The ν=5/2 anti-Pfaffian state and the ν=2/3 state are believed to have an edge composed of counterpropagating charge and neutral modes. This situation allows the generation of a pure thermal bias between two composite edge states across a quantum point contact as was experimentally established by Bid et al. [Nature 466, 585 (2010)]. We show that replacing the quantum point contact by a quantum dot provides a natural way for detecting the neutral modes via the dc current generated by the thermoelectric response of the dot. We also show that the degeneracies of the dot spectrum, dictated by the conformal field theories describing these states, induce asymmetries in the thermoelectric current peaks. This in turn provides a direct fingerprint of the corresponding conformal field theory.