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Abstract

We study in detail the properties of pi fluxes embedded in a state with a finite density of anyons that form either a Fermi liquid or a Bose-Einstein condensate. By employing a recently developed exact lattice bosonization in 2D, we demonstrate that such pi flux remains a fully deconfined quasiparticle with a finite energy cost in a Fermi liquid of emergent fermions coupled to a Z(2) gauge field. This pi flux is accompanied by a screening cloud of fermions, which in the case of a Fermi gas with a parabolic dispersion binds exactly 1/8 of a fermionic hole. In addition, there is a long-ranged power-law oscillatory disturbance of the liquid surrounding the pi flux akin to Friedel oscillations. These results carry over directly to the pi flux excitations in orthogonal metals. In sharp contrast, when the pi flux is surrounded by a Bose-Einstein condensate of particles coupled to a Z(2) gauge field, it binds a superfluid half-vortex, becoming a marginally confined excitation with a logarithmic energy cost divergence.