Scattering theory on surface Majorana fermions by an impurity in 3He-B

Abstract

We have formulated the scattering theory on Majorana fermions emerging in the surface bound state of the superfluid ${}^3$He B-phase (${}^3$He-B) by an impurity. By applying the theory to the electron bubble, which is regarded as the impurity, trapped below a free surface of ${}^3$He-B, the observed mobility of the electron bubble [Ikegami et al., J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 82, 124607 (2013)] is quantitatively reproduced. The mobility is suppressed in low temperatures from the expected value in the bulk ${}^3$He-B by the contribution from the surface Majorana fermions. By contrast, the mobility does not depend on trapped depth of the electron bubble in spite of the spatial variation of the wave function of the surface Majorana fermions. Our formulated theory demonstrates the depth independent mobility by considering intermediate states in the scattering process. Therefore, we conclude that the experiment has succeeded in observing Majorana fermions in the surface bound state.

5 pages, 2 figures + 2 pages (supplemental material), published version

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Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Review: Observation of Majorana Bound States at a Free Surface of ${}^3$He-B
• Models for supercritical motion in a superfluid Fermi liquid
• Magnon Bose-Einstein condensates: from time crystals and quantum chromodynamics to vortex sensing and cosmology
• New Phases of Superfluid ${}^3$He Confined in Aerogels
• Transport of bound quasiparticle states in a two-dimensional boundary superfluid
• Magnetic Susceptibility of Andreev Bound States in Superfluid ${}^3$He-B
• Drag on Cylinders Moving in Superfluid 3He-B as the Dimension Spans the Coherence Length
• Influence of Magnetic Field on Surface Andreev Bound States in Superfluid ${}^3$He-B Studied by Mobility of Electron Bubble
• Contribution of Andreev reflection to the mobility of surface state electrons on superfluid ${}^3$He-B