Electric-Field Induced Majorana Fermions in Armchair Carbon Nanotubes

We consider theoretically an armchair Carbon nanotube (CNT) in the presence of an electric field and in contact with an s-wave superconductor. We show that the proximity effect opens up superconducting gaps in the CNT of different strengths for the exterior and interior branches of the two Dirac points. For strong proximity induced superconductivity the interior gap can be of the p-wave type, while the exterior gap can be tuned by the electric field to be of the s-wave type. Such a setup supports a single Majorana bound state at each end of the CNT. In the case of a weak proximity induced superconductivity, the gaps in both branches are of the p-wave type. However, the temperature can be chosen in such a way that the smallest gap is effectively closed. Using renormalization group techniques we show that the Majorana bound states exist even after taking into account electron-electron interactions

Structure factor of interacting one-dimensional helical systems

We calculate the dynamical structure factor S(q, {\omega}) of a weakly interacting helical edge state in the presence of a magnetic field B. The latter opens a gap of width 2B in the single-particle spectrum, which becomes strongly nonlinear near the Dirac point. For chemical potentials |{\mu}| > B, the system then behaves as a nonlinear helical Luttinger liquid, and a mobile-impurity analysis reveals interaction-dependent power-law singularities in S(q,{\omega}). For |{\mu}| < B, the low-energy excitations are gapped, and we determine S(q,{\omega}) by using an analogy to exciton physics.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Majorana states in inhomogeneous spin ladders

We propose an inhomogeneous open spin ladder, related to the Kitaev honeycomb model, which can be tuned between topological and nontopological phases. In extension of Lieb's theorem, we show numerically that the ground state of the spin ladder is either vortex free or vortex full. We study the robustness of Majorana end states (MES) which emerge at the boundary between sections in different topological phases and show that while the MES in the homogeneous ladder are destroyed by single-body perturbations, in the presence of inhomogeneities at least two-body perturbations are required to destabilize MES. Furthermore, we prove that x, y, or z inhomogeneous magnetic fields are not able to destroy the topological degeneracy. Finally, we present a trijunction setup where MES can be braided. A network of such spin ladders provides thus a promising platform for realization and manipulation of MES

Effect of topological length on Bound states signatures in a Topological nanowire

Majorana bound states (MBS) at the end of nanowires have been proposed as one of the most important candidate for the topological qubits. However, similar tunneling conductance features for both the MBS and Andreev bound states (ABS) have turned out to be a major obstacle in the verification of the presence of MBS in semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures. In this article, we use a protocol to probe properties specific to the MBS and use it to distinguish the topological zero-bias peak (ZBP) from a trivial one. For a scenario involving quantized ZBP in the nanowire, we propose a scheme wherein the length of the topological region in the wire is altered. The tunneling conductance signatures can then be utilized to gauge the impact on the energy of the low-energy states. We show that the topological and trivial ZBP behave differently under our protocol, in particular, the topological ZBP remains robust at zero bias throughout the protocol, while the trivial ZBP splits into two peaks at finite bias. This protocol probes the protection of near zero energy states due to their separable nature, allowing us to distinguish between topological and trivial ZBP.Comment: 35 figure

Spin-orbit mediated anisotropic spin interaction in interacting electron systems

We investigate interactions between spins of strongly correlated electrons subject to the spin-orbit interaction. Our main finding is that of a novel, spin-orbit mediated anisotropic spin-spin coupling of the van der Waals type. Unlike the standard exchange, this interaction does not require the wave functions to overlap. We argue that this ferromagnetic interaction is important in the Wigner crystal state where the exchange processes are severely suppressed. We also comment on the anisotropy of the exchange between spins mediated by the spin-orbital coupling.Comment: 4.1 pages, 1 figure; (v2) minor changes, published versio