Topological degeneracy of non-Abelian states for dummies

We present a physical construction of degenerate groundstates of the Moore-Read Pfaffian states, which exhibits non-Abelian statistics, on general Riemann surface with genus g. The construction is given by a generalization of the recent argument [M.O., T. Senthil, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006) 060601] which relates fractionalization and topological order. The nontrivial groundstate degeneracy obtained by Read and Green [Phys. Rev. B 61 (2000) 10267] based on differential geometry is reproduced exactly. Some restrictions on the statistics, due to the fractional charge of the quasiparticle are also discussed. Furthermore, the groundstate degeneracy of the p + ip superconductor in two dimensions, which is closely related to the Pfaffian states, is discussed with a similar construction. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.