A wide variety of two-dimensional electron systems (2DES) allow for independent control of the total and relative charge density of two-component fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states. In particular, a recent experiment on bilayer graphene (BLG) observed a continuous transition between a compressible and incompressible phase at total filling $nu_T = frac{1}{2}$ as charge is transferred between the layers, with the remarkable property that the incompressible phase has a finite interlayer polarizability. We argue that this occurs because the topological order of $nu_T = frac{1}{2}$ systems supports a novel type of interlayer exciton that carries Fermi statistics. If the fermionic excitons are lower in energy than the conventional bosonic excitons (i.e., electron-hole pairs), they can form an emergent neutral Fermi surface, providing a possible explanation of an incompressible yet polarizable state at $nu_T = frac{1}{2}$. We perform exact diagonalization studies which demonstrate that fermionic excitons are indeed lower in energy than bosonic excitons. This suggests that a “topological exciton metal” hidden inside a FQH insulator may have been realized experimentally in BLG. We discuss several detection schemes by which the topological exciton metal can be experimentally probed.
Published : "arXiv Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics".