Superlattice platform for chiral superconductivity with tuneable and high Chern numbers

Finding concrete realizations for topologically nontrivial chiral superconductivity has been a long-standing goal in quantum matter research. Here we propose a route to a systematic realization of chiral superconductivity with nonzero Chern numbers. This goal can be achieved in a nanomagnet lattice deposited on top of a spin-orbit coupled two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) with proximity s-wave superconductivity. The proposed structure can be regarded as a universal platform for chiral superconductivity supporting a large variety of topological phases. The topological state of the system can be electrically controlled by, for example, tuning the density of the 2DEG.Comment: 5+6 pages, 4 figure

Topological superconductivity in ferromagnetic atom chains beyond the deep-impurity regime

Recent developments in the search for topological superconductivity have brought lattices of magnetic adatoms on a superconductor into intense focus. In this work we will study ferromagnetic chains of adatoms on superconducting surfaces with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Generalising the deep-impurity approach employed extensively in previous works to arbitrary subgap energies, we formulate the theory of the subgap spectrum as a nonlinear matrix eigenvalue problem. We obtain an essentially analytical description of the subgap spectrum, allowing an efficient study of the topological properties. Employing a flat-band Hamiltonian sharing the topological properties of the chain, we evaluate the $\mathbb{Z}$-valued winding number and discover five distinct topological phases. Our results also confirm that the topological band formation does not require the decoupled Shiba energies to be fine-tuned to the gap centre. We also study the properties of Majorana bound states in the system.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figure

Majorana states in helical Shiba chains and ladders

Motivated by recent proposals to realize Majorana bound states in chains and arrays of magnetic atoms deposited on top of a superconductor, we study the topological properties of various chain structures, ladders and two-dimensional arrangements exhibiting magnetic helices. We show that magnetic domain walls where the chirality of a magnetic helix is inverted support two protected Majorana states giving rise to a tunneling conductance peak twice the height of a single Majorana state. The topological properties of coupled chains exhibit nontrivial behaviour as a function of the number of chains beyond the even-odd dichotomy expected from the simple $\mathbb{Z}_2$ nature of coupled Majorana states. In addition, it is possible that a ladder of two or more coupled chains exhibit Majorana edge states even when decoupled chains are trivial. We formulate a general criterion for the number of Majorana edge states in multichain ladders and discuss some experimental consequences of our findings.Comment: 6 pages, 7 Fig

Amorphous topological superconductivity in a Shiba glass

Topological states of matter support quantized nondissipative responses and exotic quantum particles that cannot be accessed in common materials. The exceptional properties and application potential of topological materials have triggered a large-scale search for new realizations. Breaking away from the popular trend focusing almost exclusively on crystalline symmetries, we introduce the Shiba glass as a platform for amorphous topological quantum matter. This system consists of an ensemble of randomly distributed magnetic atoms on a superconducting surface. The collection of magnetic moments gives rise to subgap Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states that form a topological superconducting phase at critical density despite a complete absence of spatial order. Experimental signatures of the amorphous topological state can be obtained by STM measurements probing the topological edge mode. Our discovery demonstrates the physical feasibility of amorphous topological quantum matter and presents a concrete route to fabricating new topological systems from nontopological materials with random dopants.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Entanglement echo and dynamical entanglement transitions

We formulate dynamical phase transitions in subsystems embedded in larger quantum systems. Introducing the entanglement echo as an overlap of the initial and instantaneous entanglement ground states, we show its analytic structure after a quench provides natural definition of dynamical phase transitions in the subsystem. These transitions come in two varieties: the entanglement-type transitions and the bulk-type Loschmidt transitions. The entanglement-type transitions arise from periodic reorganization of quantum correlations between the subsystem and its environment, manifesting in instantaneous entanglement ground state degeneracies. Furthermore, the entanglement echo distinguishes the direction of the quench, resolves spatially distinct dynamical phase transitions for nonuniform quenches, and give rise to sharply defined transitions for mixed initial states. We propose an experimental probe to identify entanglement-type transitions through temporal changes in subsystem fluctuations.Non peer reviewe

Topological properties of helical Shiba chains with general impurity strength and hybridization

Recent experiments announced an observation of topological superconductivity and Majorana quasiparticles in Shiba chains, consisting of an array of magnetic atoms deposited on top of a superconductor. In this work we study helical Shiba chains and generalize the microscopic theory of subgap energy bands to a regime where the decoupled magnetic impurity energy and the hybridization of different impurity states can be significant compared to the superconducting gap of the host material. From exact solutions of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation we extract expressions for the topological phase boundaries for arbitrary values of the superconducting coherence length. The subgap spectral problem can be formulated as a nonlinear matrix eigenvalue problem from which we obtain an analytical solution for energy bands in the long coherence length limit. Physical consequences and departures from the previously obtained results in the deep-dilute impurity limit are discussed in detail.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Engineering of Chern insulators and circuits of topological edge states

Impurities embedded in electronic systems induce bound states which under certain circumstances can hybridize and lead to impurity bands. Doping of insulators with impurities has been identified as a promising route towards engineering electronic topological states of matter. In this paper we show how to realize tuneable Chern insulators starting from a three dimensional topological insulator whose surface is gapped and intentionally doped with magnetic impurities. The main advantage of the protocol is that it is robust, and in particular not very sensitive to the impurity configuration. We explicitly demonstrate this for a square lattice of impurities as well as a random lattice. In both cases we show that it is possible to change the Chern number of the system by one through manipulating its topological state. We also discuss how this can be used to engineer circuits of edge channels.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Many-body entanglement and topology from uncertainties and measurement-induced modes

We present universal characteristics of quantum entanglement and topology through virtual entanglement modes that fluctuate into existence in subsystem measurements. For generic interacting systems and extensive conserved quantities, these modes give rise to a statistical uncertainty which corresponds to entanglement entropies. Consequently, the measurement-induced modes provide directly observable route to entanglement and its scaling laws. Moreover, in topological systems, the measurement-induced edge modes give rise to quantized and nonanalytic uncertainties, providing easily accessible signatures of topology. Our work provides a much-needed direct method to probe the performance of emerging quantum simulators to realize entangled and topological states.Peer reviewe

Boiling Quantum Vacuum : Thermal Subsystems from Ground-State Entanglement

In certain special circumstances, such as in the vicinity of a black hole or in a uniformly accelerating frame, vacuum fluctuations appear to give rise to a finite-temperature environment. This effect, currently without experimental confirmation, can be interpreted as a manifestation of quantum entanglement after tracing out vacuum modes in an unobserved region. In this work, we identify a class of experimentally accessible quantum systems where thermal density matrices emerge from vacuum entanglement. We show that reduced density matrices of lower-dimensional subsystems embedded in D-dimensional gapped Dirac fermion vacuum, either on a lattice or continuum, have a thermal form with respect to a lower-dimensional Dirac Hamiltonian. Strikingly, we show that vacuum entanglement can even conspire to make a subsystem of a gapped system at zero temperature appear as a hot gapless system. We propose concrete experiments in cold-atom quantum simulators to observe the vacuum-entanglement-induced thermal states.Peer reviewe

Exponential shortcut to measurement-induced entanglement phase transitions

Recently discovered measurement-induced entanglement phase transitions in monitored quantum circuits provide a novel example of far-from-equilibrium quantum criticality. Here, we propose a highly efficient strategy for experimentally accessing these transitions through fluctuations. Instead of directly measuring entanglement entropy, which requires an exponential number of measurements in the subsystem size, our method provides a scalable approach to entanglement transitions in the presence of conserved quantities. In analogy to entanglement entropy and mutual information, we illustrate how bipartite and multipartite fluctuations can both be employed to analyze the measurement-induced criticality. Remarkably, the phase transition can be revealed by measuring fluctuations of only a handful of qubits.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure