Role of inter-edge tunneling in localizing Majorana zero modes at the ends of quasi one-dimensional p+ip systems

Abstract

Potter and Lee have demonstrated the presence of Majorana zero modes at the ends of quasi one-dimensional (1-D) p+ip superconductors. We use conformal field theory (CFT) methods to show that inter-edge tunneling of the vortex excitations along the length of the channel is crucial for such localization. We show that localization of Majorana modes occurs also in quasi 1-D channels of the 5/2 fractional quantum Hall (FQH) systems when modeled, following Moore and Read, as the p+ip paired state of composite fermions. We propose a tunnel-interferometry experiment to detect these modes, which should show a π-phase shift of oscillations depending on whether a localized Majorana zero mode is present or not, which, in turn, can be controlled by varying the tunneling strength.

6 pages, 3 figures, published version

References in corpus (7)

• Superconducting proximity effect and Majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator
• Majorana Fermions and a Topological Phase Transition in Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructures
• New directions in the pursuit of Majorana fermions in solid state systems
• Search for Majorana fermions in superconductors
• Multichannel Generalization of Kitaev's Majorana End States and a Practical Route to Realize Them in Thin Films
• Fractional quantum Hall effect at $\nu =5/2$: Ground states, non-Abelian quasiholes, and edge modes in a microscopic model
• Chiral correlators of the Ising conformal field theory

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Classification of engineered topological superconductors