1D Majorana Goldstinos and partial supersymmetry breaking in quantum wires

Realizing Majorana modes in topological superconductors, i.e., the condensed-matter counterpart of Majorana fermions in particle physics, may lead to a major advance in the field of topologically-protected quantum computation. Here, we introduce one-dimensional, counterpropagating, and dispersive Ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications physics 2022-06, Vol.5 (1), p.1-10, Article 149
Main Authors: Marra, Pasquale, Inotani, Daisuke, Nitta, Muneto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/766/119/2792
639/766/483/640
Bias
Braiding
Broken symmetry
Data processing
Energy
Fermions
Magnetic fields
Nanowires
Particle physics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Quantum computing
Quantum field theory
Quantum phenomena
Quantum wires
Qubits (quantum computing)
Supersymmetry
Symmetry
Topological superconductors
Wire
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Summary:Realizing Majorana modes in topological superconductors, i.e., the condensed-matter counterpart of Majorana fermions in particle physics, may lead to a major advance in the field of topologically-protected quantum computation. Here, we introduce one-dimensional, counterpropagating, and dispersive Majorana modes as bulk excitations of a periodic chain of partially-overlapping, zero-dimensional Majorana modes in proximitized nanowires via periodically-modulated fields. This system realizes centrally-extended quantum-mechanical supersymmetry with spontaneous partial supersymmetry breaking. The massless Majorana modes are the Nambu-Goldstone fermions (Goldstinos) associated with the spontaneously broken supersymmetry. Their experimental fingerprint is a dip-to-peak transition in the zero-bias conductance, which is generally not expected for Majorana modes overlapping at a finite distance. Moreover, the Majorana modes can slide along the wire by applying a rotating magnetic field, realizing a “Majorana pump”. This may suggest new braiding protocols and implementations of topological qubits. Majorana modes realised in topological superconductors are expected to be an important feature for quantum information processing applications. Here, the authors propose an experimental approach to achieve N  = 4 supersymmetry in a proximitised semiconducting nanowire and, by spontaneous breaking of the supersymmetry, realise 1D helical Majorana modes as Goldstinos.
ISSN:2399-3650
2399-3650
DOI:10.1038/s42005-022-00920-4