Theory of Half-Integer Fractional Quantum Spin Hall Insulator Edges

Abstract

We study the edges of fractional quantum spin Hall insulators (FQSH) with half-integer spin Hall conductance. These states can be viewed as symmetric combinations of a spin-up and spin-down half-integer fractional quantum Hall state (FQH) that are time-reversal invariant, and conserve the z-component of spin. We consider the non-Abelian states based on the Pfaffian, anti-Pfaffian, PH-Pfaffian, and 221 FQH, and generic Abelian FQH. For strong enough spin-conserving interactions, we find that all the non-Abelian and Abelian edges flow to the same fixed point that consists of a single pair of charged counter-propagating bosonic modes. If spin-conservation is broken, the Abelian edge can be fully gapped in a time-reversal symmetric fashion. The non-Abelian edge with broken spin-conservation remains gapless due to time-reversal symmetry, and can flow to a new fixed point with a helical gapless pair of Majorana fermions. We discuss the possible relevance of our results to the recent observation of a half-integer edge conductance in twisted MoTe2.