Quench dynamics of fermion-parity switches in a Josephson junction

Abstract

A Josephson junction may be driven through a transition where the superconducting condensate favors an odd over an even number of electrons. At this switch in the ground-state fermion parity, an Andreev bound state crosses through the Fermi level, producing a zero-mode that can be probed by a point contact to a grounded metal. We calculate the time-dependent charge transfer between superconductor and metal for a linear sweep through the transition. One single quasiparticle is exchanged with charge $Q$ depending on the coupling energies ${\gamma }_1,{\gamma }_2$ of the metal to the Majorana operators of the zero-mode. For a single-channel point contact, $Q$ equals the electron charge $e$ in the adiabatic limit of slow driving, while in the opposite quenched limit $Q=2e\sqrt{{\gamma }_1{\gamma }_2}/({\gamma }_1+{\gamma }_2)$ varies between $0$ and $e$. This provides a method to produce single charge-neutral quasiparticles on demand.

10 pages, 5 figures, v. 3: numerical simulation and a derivation of charge transfer in adiabatic regime added, v. 4: multi-channel probe case added

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• Single-electron coherence: finite temperature versus pure dephasing
• Electrical detection of the Majorana fusion rule for chiral edge vortices in a topological superconductor
• Waiting times of entangled electrons in normal-superconducting junctions
• Electronic quantum optics beyond the integer quantum Hall effect
• Josephson effect in junctions of conventional and topological superconductors
• Time-resolved electrical detection of chiral edge vortex braiding
• Half-integer charge injection by a Josephson junction without excess noise
• Supersymmetry in Closed Chains of Coupled Majorana Modes
• Nonlocality and dynamic response of Majorana states in fermionic superfluids
• Interplay between Coulomb blockade and Josephson effect in a topological superconductor-quantum dot device
• Zero-dimensional topologically nontrivial state in a superconducting quantum dot