Universal nonequilibrium signatures of Majorana zero modes in quench dynamics

Abstract

The quantum evolution after a metallic lead is suddenly connected to an electron system contains information about the excitation spectrum of the combined system. We exploit this type of "quantum quench" to probe the presence of Majorana fermions at the ends of a topological superconducting wire. We obtain an algebraically decaying overlap (Loschmidt echo) $\mathcal{L}(t)=|<\psi (0)|\psi (t)>{|}^2\sim t^{-\alpha }$ for large times after the quench, with a universal critical exponent $\alpha$=1/4 that is found to be remarkably robust against details of the setup, such as interactions in the normal lead, the existence of additional lead channels or the presence of bound levels between the lead and the superconductor. As in recent quantum dot experiments, this exponent could be measured by optical absorption, offering a new signature of Majorana zero modes that is distinct from interferometry and tunneling spectroscopy.

9 pages + appendices, 4 figures. v3: published version

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Quench dynamics and parity blocking in Majorana wires
• Robustness of Majorana edge modes and topological order -- exact results for the symmetric interacting Kitaev chain with disorder
• Dynamics of hybrid junctions of Majorana wires
• Local Quench, Majorana Zero Modes, and Disturbance Propagation in the Ising chain
• Electron correlation effects in superconducting nanowires in and out of equilibrium
• Zeno physics of the Ising chain with symmetry-breaking boundary dephasing
• Counting edge modes via dynamics of boundary spin impurities
• Emergence of $X$ states in a quantum impurity model
• Absence of thermalization of free systems coupled to gapped interacting reservoirs
• Bipartite Fidelity and Loschmidt Echo of Bosonic Conformal Interface