A proposal to probe quantum non-locality of Majorana fermions in tunneling experiments

Abstract

Topological Majorana fermion (MF) quasiparticles have been recently suggested to exist in semiconductor quantum wires with proximity induced superconductivity and a Zeeman field. Although the experimentally observed zero bias tunneling peak and a fractional ac-Josephson effect can be taken as necessary signatures of MFs, neither of them constitutes a sufficient "smoking gun" experiment. Since one pair of Majorana fermions share a single conventional fermionic degree of freedom, MFs are in a sense fractionalized excitations. Based on this fractionalization we propose a tunneling experiment that furnishes a nearly unique signature of end state MFs in semiconductor quantum wires. In particular, we show that a "teleportation"-like experiment is not enough to distinguish MFs from pairs of MFs, which are equivalent to conventional zero energy states, but our proposed tunneling experiment, in principle, can make this distinction.

Simplified proposal with expanded results in this version; 5 pages, 2 figures + Supplementary material

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Cited by in corpus (32)

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• Nonlocality of Majorana Modes in Hybrid Nanowires
• Two terminal charge tunneling: Disentangling Majorana zero modes from partially separated Andreev bound states in semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures
• Majorana bound states in non-homogeneous semiconductor nanowires
• Majorana nanowires for topological quantum computation
• Distinguishing Majorana bound states from localized Andreev bound states by interferometry
• Conductance of a superconducting Coulomb blockaded Majorana nanowire
• Coherent transport through a Majorana island in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer
• Coupling and braiding Majorana bound states in networks defined in proximitized two-dimensional electron gases
• Majorana Braiding in Realistic Nanowire Y-Junctions and Tuning Forks
• Fingerprints of Majorana bound states in Aharonov Bohm geometry
• Topological superconductivity and Majorana states in low-dimensional systems
• Fractional Josephson Effect in Number-Conserving Systems
• Transport through a quantum dot coupled to two Majorana bound states
• Exact nonequilibrium transport in the topological Kondo effect
• Majorana-assisted nonlocal electron transport through a floating topological superconductor
• Conductance interference in a superconducting Coulomb blockaded Majorana ring
• Detecting Majorana nonlocality using strongly coupled Majorana bound states
• Fano effect in Aharonov-Bohm ring with topologically superconducting bridge
• Theory of Coulomb blockaded transport in realistic Majorana nanowires
• Proposal for measuring the parity anomaly in a topological superconductor ring
• Non-Kondo many-body physics in a Majorana-based Kondo type system
• Tunable crossed Andreev reflection in a heterostructure consisting of ferromagnets, normal metal and superconductors
• Majorana versus Andreev bound state energy oscillations in a 1D semiconductor-superconductor heterostructure
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• Double Fu-teleportation and anomalous Coulomb blockade in a Majorana-hosted superconducting island
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• Distinguishing Majorana bound states and Andreev bound states with microwave spectra
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• From Majorana fermions to topological quantum computation in semiconductor/superconductor heterostructures
• Majorana Bound States hallmark in a quantum topological interferometer ring
• Edge Modes and Teleportation in a Topologically Insulating Quantum Wire