Possibility of p-wave pairing of composite fermions at $\nu=1/2$

Abstract

We find that for the pure Coulomb repulsion the composite Fermi sea at $\nu=1/2$ is on the verge of an instability to triplet pairing of composite fermions. It is argued that a transition into the paired state, described by a Pfaffian wave function, may be induced if the short-range part of the interaction is softened by increasing the thickness of the two-dimensional electron system.