A number conserving theory for topologically protected degeneracy in one-dimensional fermions

Semiconducting nanowires in proximity to superconductors are among promising candidates to search for Majorana fermions and topologically protected degeneracies which may ultimately be used as building blocks for topological quantum computers. The prediction of neutral Majorana fermions in the proximity-induced superconducting systems ignores number-conservation and thus leaves open the conceptual question of how a topological degeneracy that is robust to all local perturbations arises in a number-conserving system. In this work, we study how local attractive interactions generate a topological ground-state near-degeneracy in a quasi one-dimensional superfluid using bosonization of the fermions. The local attractive interactions opens a topological quasiparticle gap in the odd channel wires (with more than one channel) with end Majorana modes associated with a topological near-degeneracy. We explicitly study the robustness of the topological degeneracy to local perturbations and find that such local perturbations result in quantum phase slips which split of the topological degeneracy by an amount that does not decrease exponentially with the length of the wire, but still decreases rapidly if the number of channels is large. Therefore a bulk superconductor with a large number of channels is crucial for true topological degeneracy.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Nonlocal Charge Transport Mediated by Spin Diffusion in the Spin-Hall Effect Regime

A nonlocal electric response in the spin-Hall regime, resulting from spin diffusion mediating charge conduction, is predicted. The spin-mediated transport stands out due to its long-range character, and can give dominant contribution to nonlocal resistance. The characteristic range of nonlocality, set by the spin diffusion length, can be large enough to allow detection of this effect in materials such as GaAs despite its small magnitude. The detection is facilitated by a characteristic nonmonotonic dependence of transresistance on the external magnetic field, exhibiting sign changes and decay.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Composite Fermions in Modulated Structures: Transport and Surface Acoustic Waves

Motivated by a recent experiment of Willett et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 4478 (1997)], we employ semiclassical composite-fermion theory to study the effect of a periodic density modulation on a quantum Hall system near Landau level filling factor nu=1/2. We show that even a weak density modulation leads to dramatic changes in surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) propagation, and propose an explanation for several key features of the experimental observations. We predict that properly arranged dc transport measurements would show a structure similar to that seen in SAW measurements.Comment: Version published in Phys. Rev. Lett. Figures changed to show SAW velocity shift. LaTeX, 5 pages, two included postscript figure

Superfluid-insulator transition in a moving system of interacting bosons

We analyze stability of superfluid currents in a system of strongly interacting ultra-cold atoms in an optical lattice. We show that such a system undergoes a dynamic, irreversible phase transition at a critical phase gradient that depends on the interaction strength between atoms. At commensurate filling, the phase boundary continuously interpolates between the classical modulation instability of a weakly interacting condensate and the equilibrium quantum phase transition into a Mott insulator state at which the critical current vanishes. We argue that quantum fluctuations smear the transition boundary in low dimensional systems. Finally we discuss the implications to realistic experiments.Comment: updated refernces and introduction, minor correction

Parity Effect in a Small Superconducting Particle

Matveev and Larkin calculated the parity effect on the ground state energy of a small superconducting particle in the regimes where the mean level spacing is either large or small compared to the bulk gap. We perform a numerical calculation which extends their results into the intermediate regime, where the level spacing is of the same order as the bulk gap.Comment: 6 LaTeX pages, including 2 EPS figures; corrected reference and spellin

Imaginary Squashing Mode Spectroscopy of Helium Three B

We have made precision measurements of the frequency of a collective mode of the superfluid 3He-B order parameter, the J=2- imaginary squashing mode. Measurements were performed at multiple pressures using interference of transverse sound in an acoustic cavity. Transverse waves propagate in the vicinity of this order parameter mode owing to off-resonant coupling. At the crossing of the sound mode and the order parameter mode, the sound wave is strongly attenuated. We use both velocity and attenuation measurements to determine precise values of the mode frequency with a resolution between 0.1% and 0.25%.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to proceedings of Quantum Fluids and Solids (QFS) Conference 2006; revised 9/26/0

Tunneling effect on composite fermion pairing state in bilayer quantum Hall system

We discuss the composite fermion pairing state in bilayer quantum Hall systems. After the evaluation of the range of the inter-layer separation in which the quantum Hall state is stabilized, we discuss the effect of inter-layer tunneling on the composite fermion pairing state at \nu=1/2. We show that there is a cusp at the transition point between the Halperin (3,3,1) state and the Pfaffian state.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Composite Fermions with Orbital Magnetization

For quantum Hall systems, in the limit of large magnetic field (or equivalently small electron band mass $m_b$), the static response of electrons to a spatially varying magnetic field is largely determined by kinetic energy considerations. This response is not correctly given in existing approximations based on the Fermion Chern-Simons theory of the partially filled Landau level. We remedy this problem by attaching an orbital magnetization to each fermion to separate the current into magnetization and transport contributions, associated with the cyclotron and guiding center motions respectively. This leads to a Chern-Simons Fermi liquid description of the $\nu=\frac{1}{2m}$ state which correctly predicts the $m_b$ dependence of the static and dynamic response in the limit $m_b \rightarrow 0$.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, no figure

The half-filled Landau level - composite fermions and dipoles

The composite-fermion approach as formulated in the fermion Chern-Simons theory has been very successful in describing the physics of the lowest Landau level near Landau level filling factor 1/2. Recent work has emphasized the fact that the true quasiparticles at these filling factors are electrically neutral and carry an electric dipole moment. In a previous work, we discussed at length two formulations in terms of dipolar quasiparticles. Here we briefly review one approach - termed electron-centered quasiparticles - and show how it can be extended from 1/2 to nearby filling factors where the quasiparticles carry both an electric dipole moment and an overall charge.Comment: 10 pages, minor improvements of notation and referencin

Response Function of the Fractional Quantized Hall State on a Sphere II: Exact Diagonalization

We study the excitation spectra and the dynamical structure factor of quantum Hall states in a finite size system through exact diagonalization. Comparison is made between the numerical results so obtained and the analytic results obtained from a modified RPA in the preceding companion paper. We find good agreement between the results at low energies.Comment: 22 pages (REVTeX 3.0). 10 figures available on request. Complete postscript file (including figures) for this paper are available on the World Wide Web at http://cmtw.harvard.edu/~simon/ ; Preprint number HU-CMT-94S0