Magnus effect on a Majorana zero-mode

Abstract

A supercurrent on the proximitized surface of a topological insulator can cause a delocalization transition of a Majorana fermion bound to a vortex core as a zero-mode. Here we study the dynamics of the deconfinement, as a manifestation of the Magnus effect (the coupling of the superflow to the velocity field in the vortex). The initial acceleration of the Majorana fermion is $\pm 2v_{\mathrm{F}}^{2}K/\hslash$, perpendicular to the Cooper pair momentum $K$, for a $\pm 2\pi$ winding of the superconducting phase around the vortex. The quasiparticle escapes with a constant velocity from the vortex core, which we calculate in a semiclassical approximation and compare with computer simulations.

8 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation
• Superconducting proximity effect and Majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator