Mechanical analogue of a Majorana bound state

Abstract

The discovery of topologically non-trivial electronic systems has opened a new age in condensed matter research. From topological insulators to topological superconductors and Weyl semimetals, it is now understood that some of the most remarkable and robust phases in electronic systems (e.g., Quantum Hall or Anomalous Quantum Hall) are the result of topological protection. These powerful ideas have recently begun to be explored also in bosonic systems. Topologically protected acoustic, mechanical, and optical edge states have been demonstrated in a number of systems that recreate the requisite topological conditions. Such states that propagate without backscattering could find important applications in communications and energy technologies. In this work we demonstrate the mechanical analogue of a topologically bound state, a different class of non-propagating protected state that cannot be destroyed by local perturbations. These are well known in electronic systems, such as Majorana bound states in topological superconductors, but remain largely unexplored in a bosonic setting. We implement topological binding by creating a Kekulé distortion vortex on a two-dimensional mechanical honeycomb superlattice.

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• Dirac-vortex topological cavity
• Topological rainbow trapping for elastic energy harvesting in graded SSH systems
• Anomalous topological edge states in non-Hermitian piezophononic media
• Dirac-vortex topological photonic crystal fibre
• Flat bands in magic-angle vibrating plates
• A Photonic Topological Mode Bound to a Vortex
• Nanomechanical topological insulators with an auxiliary orbital degree of freedom
• Optomechanical realization of the bosonic Kitaev-Majorana chain
• Experimental realization of two-dimensional weak topological insulators
• Monopole topological resonators
• A topological Dirac-vortex parametric phonon laser
• On the role of geometric phase in the dynamics of elastic waveguides
• Topological Computation by non-Abelian Braiding in Classical Metamaterials
• Edge modes for flexural waves in quasi-periodic linear arrays of scatterers
• Observation of Embedded Topology in a Trivial Bulk via Projective Crystal Symmetry
• Single $\pi$-flux hosting topological defect modes in bilayer acoustic metamaterials