Charge $2e/3$ superconductivity and topological degeneracies without localized zero modes in bilayer fractional quantum Hall states

Abstract: It has been recently shown that non-Abelian defects with localized parafermion zero modes can arise in conventional Abelian fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states. Here we propose an alternate route to creating, manipulating, and measuring topologically protected degeneracies in bilayer FQH states coupled to superconductors, without the creation of localized parafermion zero modes. We focus mainly on electron-hole bilayers, with a $\pm 1/3$ Laughlin FQH state in each layer, with boundaries that are proximity-coupled to a superconductor. We show that the superconductor induces charge $2e/3$ quasiparticle-pair condensation at each boundary of the FQH state, and that this leads to (1) topologically protected degeneracies that can be measured through charge sensing experiments and (2) a fractional charge $2e/3$ AC Josephson effect. We demonstrate that an analog of non-Abelian braiding is possible, despite the absence of a localized zero mode. We discuss several practical advantages of this proposal over previous work, and also extensions to electron-electron bilayers at $\nu = 2/3 + 1/3$ coupled to superconductivity, and to electron-hole bilayers with only interlayer tunneling.