Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1111.6643 · Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Riding a wild horse: Majorana fermions interacting with solitons of fast bosonic fields

Alexei M. Tsvelik

Published Jan 1, 2012• 8 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

I consider a class of one-dimensional models where Majorana fermions interact with bosonic fields. Contrary to a more familiar situation where bosonic degrees of freedom are phonons and as such form a slow subsystem, I consider fast bosons. Such situation exists when the bosonic modes appear as collective excitations of interacting electrons as, for instance, in superconductors or carbon nanotubes. It is shown that an entire new class of excitations emerge, namely bound states of solitons and Majorana fermions. The latter bound states are not topological and their existence and number depend on the interactions and the soliton's velocity. Intriguingly the number of bound states increases with the soliton's velocity.

DOI
10.1209/0295-5075/97/17011

Related papers

Majorana zero modes in the interacting fermion chain without pairing

Andrei A. Zvyagin

The ground state behavior of the spinless fermion chain with an interaction between fermions at neighboring sites is studied for free open boundaries. For the strong enough repulsion boundary gapless states (bound state of Majorana operators from opposite sites of the chain) can exist inside the gap for bulk excitations, i.e., in the topological insulator regime. We propose to use those Majorana zero modes as topological qubits, similar to the ones in one-dimensional topological superconductors. Possible physical realizations of the considered model are discussed.

Low Temperature Physics•May 1, 2021•6 citations

Collisions of Majorana Zero Modes

Liang‐Liang Wang, Wenjun Shao, Jian Li

We investigate the collisions of Majorana zero modes, which are presented as inter-soliton collisional events in fermionic superfluids with spin-orbit coupling. Our results demonstrate that, the zero energy splitting, induced by the overlapping of inter-soliton Majorana wave-functions upon collision, generates an effective repulsive force for Majorana states, which in turn protected themselves against into bulk excitation. As a result, the collision between solitons associated with Majorana zero modes appears to be repulsive and elastic, as they do not penetrate each other but instead repel without energy loss. As well, similar repulsive behavior is observed in collisions between soliton-induced and defect-pinned Majorana zero modes. Our research offers new insights into the features of Majorana fermions, and robustness in the collisions of Majorana zero modes bodes well for the prospects of topological quantum computation with a multitude of Majorana qubits.

arXiv:2312.15878•Dec 26, 2023•0 citations

Traveling Majorana Solitons in a Low-Dimensional Spin-Orbit-Coupled Fermi Superfluid

Peng Zou, Joachim Brand, Xia-Ji Liu +1 more

We investigate traveling solitons of a one- or two-dimensional spin-orbit-coupled Fermi superfluid in both topologically trivial and nontrivial regimes by solving the static and time-dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. We find a critical velocity v_{h} for traveling solitons that is much smaller than the value predicted using the Landau criterion due to spin-orbit coupling. Above v_{h}, our time-dependent simulations in harmonic traps indicate that traveling solitons decay by radiating sound waves. In the topological phase, we predict the existence of peculiar Majorana solitons, which host two Majorana fermions and feature a phase jump of π across the soliton, irrespective of the velocity of travel. These unusual properties of Majorana solitons may open an alternative way to manipulate Majorana fermions for fault-tolerant topological quantum computations.

arXiv:1509.01803•Physical Review Letters•Nov 23, 2016•19 citations

Exact zero modes and decoherence in systems of interacting Majorana fermions

Guang Yang, Dima E. Feldman

Majorana fermions often coexist with other low-energy fermionic degrees of freedom. In such a situation, topological quantum computation requires the use of fermionic zero modes of a many-body system. We classify all such modes for interacting fermions and show how to select the mode that maximizes the decoherence time. We find that in a typical interacting system the maximal decoherence time is within one order of magnitude from the decoherence time of a qubit based on the local part of the fermion parity operator.

arXiv:1311.7604•Physical Review B•Jan 22, 2014•14 citations

Flux-stabilized Majorana zero modes in coupled one-dimensional Fermi wires

Chun Chen, Wei Yan, C. S. Ting +2 more

One promising avenue to study one-dimensional (1D) topological phases is to realize them in synthetic materials such as cold atomic gases. Intriguingly, it is possible to realize Majorana boundary modes in a 1D number-conserving system consisting of two fermionic chains coupled only by pair-hopping processes [C. V. Kraus et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 173004 (2013)]. It is commonly believed that significant interchain single-particle tunneling necessarily destroys these Majorana modes, as it spoils the ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ fermion-parity symmetry that protects them. In this Rapid Communication, we present a mechanism to overcome this obstacle, by piercing a (synthetic) magnetic $\ensuremath{\pi}$ flux through each plaquette of the Fermi ladder. Using bosonization, we show that in this case there exists an exact leg-interchange symmetry that is robust to interchain hopping, and acts as fermion parity at long wavelengths. We utilize density matrix renormalization group and exact diagonalization to verify that the resulting model exhibits Majorana boundary modes up to large single-particle tunnelings, comparable to the intrachain hopping strength. Our work highlights the unusual impacts of different topologically trivial band structures on these interaction-driven topological phases, and identifies a distinct route to stabilizing Majorana boundary modes in 1D fermionic ladders.

arXiv:1701.01794•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Oct 8, 2018•19 citations

Boosting Majorana Zero Modes

Torsten Karzig, Gil Refael, Felix von Oppen

One-dimensional topological superconductors are known to host Majorana zero modes at domain walls terminating the topological phase. Their non-Abelian nature allows for processing quantum information by braiding operations that are insensitive to local perturbations, making Majorana zero modes a promising platform for topological quantum computation. Motivated by the ultimate goal of executing quantum-information processing on a finite time scale, we study domain walls moving at a constant velocity. We exploit an effective Lorentz invariance of the Hamiltonian to obtain an exact solution of the associated quasiparticle spectrum and wave functions for arbitrary velocities. Essential features of the solution have a natural interpretation in terms of the familiar relativistic effects of Lorentz contraction and time dilation. We find that the Majorana zero modes remain stable as long as the domain wall moves at subluminal velocities with respect to the effective speed of light of the system. However, the Majorana bound state dissolves into a continuous quasiparticle spectrum after the domain wall propagates at luminal or even superluminal velocities. This relativistic catastrophe implies that there is an upper limit for possible braiding frequencies even in a perfectly clean system with an arbitrarily large topological gap. We also exploit our exact solution to consider domain walls moving past static impurities present in the system.

•Jan 1, 2013•26 citations
I consider a class of one-dimensional models where Majorana fermions interact with bosonic fields. Contrary to a more familiar situation where bosonic degrees of freedom are phonons and as such form a slow subsystem, I consider fast bosons. Such situation exists when the bosonic modes appear as collective excitations of interacting electrons as, for instance, in superconductors or carbon nanotubes. It is shown that an entire new class of excitations emerge, namely bound states of solitons and Majorana fermions. The latter bound states are not topological and their existence and number depend on the interactions and the soliton's velocity. Intriguingly the number of bound states increases with the soliton's velocity.
The ground state behavior of the spinless fermion chain with an interaction between fermions at neighboring sites is studied for free open boundaries. For the strong enough repulsion boundary gapless states (bound state of Majorana operators from opposite sites of the chain) can exist inside the gap for bulk excitations, i.e., in the topological insulator regime. We propose to use those Majorana zero modes as topological qubits, similar to the ones in one-dimensional topological superconductors. Possible physical realizations of the considered model are discussed.
We investigate the collisions of Majorana zero modes, which are presented as inter-soliton collisional events in fermionic superfluids with spin-orbit coupling. Our results demonstrate that, the zero energy splitting, induced by the overlapping of inter-soliton Majorana wave-functions upon collision, generates an effective repulsive force for Majorana states, which in turn protected themselves against into bulk excitation. As a result, the collision between solitons associated with Majorana zero modes appears to be repulsive and elastic, as they do not penetrate each other but instead repel without energy loss. As well, similar repulsive behavior is observed in collisions between soliton-induced and defect-pinned Majorana zero modes. Our research offers new insights into the features of Majorana fermions, and robustness in the collisions of Majorana zero modes bodes well for the prospects of topological quantum computation with a multitude of Majorana qubits.
We investigate traveling solitons of a one- or two-dimensional spin-orbit-coupled Fermi superfluid in both topologically trivial and nontrivial regimes by solving the static and time-dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. We find a critical velocity v_{h} for traveling solitons that is much smaller than the value predicted using the Landau criterion due to spin-orbit coupling. Above v_{h}, our time-dependent simulations in harmonic traps indicate that traveling solitons decay by radiating sound waves. In the topological phase, we predict the existence of peculiar Majorana solitons, which host two Majorana fermions and feature a phase jump of π across the soliton, irrespective of the velocity of travel. These unusual properties of Majorana solitons may open an alternative way to manipulate Majorana fermions for fault-tolerant topological quantum computations.
Majorana fermions often coexist with other low-energy fermionic degrees of freedom. In such a situation, topological quantum computation requires the use of fermionic zero modes of a many-body system. We classify all such modes for interacting fermions and show how to select the mode that maximizes the decoherence time. We find that in a typical interacting system the maximal decoherence time is within one order of magnitude from the decoherence time of a qubit based on the local part of the fermion parity operator.
One promising avenue to study one-dimensional (1D) topological phases is to realize them in synthetic materials such as cold atomic gases. Intriguingly, it is possible to realize Majorana boundary modes in a 1D number-conserving system consisting of two fermionic chains coupled only by pair-hopping processes [C. V. Kraus et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 173004 (2013)]. It is commonly believed that significant interchain single-particle tunneling necessarily destroys these Majorana modes, as it spoils the Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ fermion-parity symmetry that protects them. In this Rapid Communication, we present a mechanism to overcome this obstacle, by piercing a (synthetic) magnetic $\ensuremath{\pi}$ flux through each plaquette of the Fermi ladder. Using bosonization, we show that in this case there exists an exact leg-interchange symmetry that is robust to interchain hopping, and acts as fermion parity at long wavelengths. We utilize density matrix renormalization group and exact diagonalization to verify that the resulting model exhibits Majorana boundary modes up to large single-particle tunnelings, comparable to the intrachain hopping strength. Our work highlights the unusual impacts of different topologically trivial band structures on these interaction-driven topological phases, and identifies a distinct route to stabilizing Majorana boundary modes in 1D fermionic ladders.
One-dimensional topological superconductors are known to host Majorana zero modes at domain walls terminating the topological phase. Their non-Abelian nature allows for processing quantum information by braiding operations that are insensitive to local perturbations, making Majorana zero modes a promising platform for topological quantum computation. Motivated by the ultimate goal of executing quantum-information processing on a finite time scale, we study domain walls moving at a constant velocity. We exploit an effective Lorentz invariance of the Hamiltonian to obtain an exact solution of the associated quasiparticle spectrum and wave functions for arbitrary velocities. Essential features of the solution have a natural interpretation in terms of the familiar relativistic effects of Lorentz contraction and time dilation. We find that the Majorana zero modes remain stable as long as the domain wall moves at subluminal velocities with respect to the effective speed of light of the system. However, the Majorana bound state dissolves into a continuous quasiparticle spectrum after the domain wall propagates at luminal or even superluminal velocities. This relativistic catastrophe implies that there is an upper limit for possible braiding frequencies even in a perfectly clean system with an arbitrarily large topological gap. We also exploit our exact solution to consider domain walls moving past static impurities present in the system.