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:1211.2498 · Physical Review B

Generating many Majorana modes via periodic driving: A superconductor model

Qingjun Tong, Jun‐Hong An, Jiangbin Gong, Hong‐Gang Luo, C. H. Oh

Published May 24, 2013• 180 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Realizing Majorana modes (MMs) in condensed-matter systems is of vast experimental and theoretical interests, and some signatures of MMs have been measured already. To facilitate future experimental observations and to explore further applications of MMs, generating many MMs at ease in an experimentally accessible manner has become one important issue. This task is achieved here in a one-dimensional $p$-wave superconductor system with the nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor interactions. In particular, a periodic modulation of some system parameters can induce an effective long-range interaction (as suggested by the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula) and may recover time-reversal symmetry already broken in undriven cases. By exploiting these two independent mechanisms at once we have established a general method in generating many Floquet MMs via periodic driving.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.87.201109

Related papers

Floquet generation of Majorana end modes and topological invariants

Manisha Thakurathi, Aavishkar A. Patel, Diptiman Sen +1 more

We show how Majorana end modes can be generated in a one-dimensional system by varying some of the parameters in the Hamiltonian periodically in time. The specific model we consider is a chain containing spinless electrons with a nearest-neighbor hopping amplitude, a $p$-wave superconducting term, and a chemical potential; this is equivalent to a spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ chain with anisotropic $XY$ couplings between nearest neighbors and a magnetic field applied in the $\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{z}$ direction. We show that varying the chemical potential (or magnetic field) periodically in time can produce Majorana modes at the ends of a long chain. We discuss two kinds of periodic driving, periodic $\ensuremath{\delta}$-function kicks, and a simple harmonic variation with time. We discuss some distinctive features of the end modes such as the inverse participation ratio of their wave functions and their Floquet eigenvalues which are always equal to $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1$ for time-reversal-symmetric systems. For the case of periodic $\ensuremath{\delta}$-function kicks, we use the effective Hamiltonian of a system with periodic boundary conditions to define two topological invariants. The first invariant is a well-known winding number, while the second invariant has not appeared in the literature before. The second invariant is more powerful in that it always correctly predicts the numbers of end modes with Floquet eigenvalues equal to $+1$ and $\ensuremath{-}1$, while the first invariant does not. We find that the number of end modes can become very large as the driving frequency decreases. We show that periodic $\ensuremath{\delta}$-function kicks in the hopping and superconducting terms can also produce end modes. Finally, we study the effect of electron-phonon interactions (which are relevant at finite temperatures) and a random noise in the chemical potential on the Majorana modes.

arXiv:1303.2300•Physical Review B•Oct 28, 2013•261 citations

Braiding floquet majorana modes in one-dimensional topological superconductors

Bill P. Truong

The topic of Majorana zero modes has been a focal point of the condensed matter physicscommunity in recent times due in part to their potential applications in quantum computation.Most notably, the exotic exchange statistics of Majorana zero modes form the basis oftopologically protected quantum gates. The physical exchange, or braiding, of Majorana zeromodes is often modeled in two-dimensional systems or by using networks of wires. Recentwork has established that Majorana zero modes can be braided in a purely one-dimensionalsetting with a periodic, or Floquet, drive. Specifically, the work of Bauer et al. in Ref.[1] demonstrates that a working braiding protocol can be simulated on a Kitaev chain withperiodically modulated parameters. This Floquet system gives rise to both Majorana zeromodes and Majorana pi modes, the latter of which serves as an additional degree of freedomin the braiding protocol.We reproduce the results of Ref. [1] through numerical simulation and extend theirbraiding protocol such that it includes both disorder and interactions. We demonstrate thatthe protocol remains successful when the disorder is weak compared to the parameters of thesystem. In the case of strong disorder, we demonstrate that the protocol fails. In addition,we show that the protocol is quite sensitive to the presence of interactions. We illustratethat interactions cause a severe delocalization of the Majorana zero modes leading to thefailure of the protocol

Bulletin of the American Physical Society•Jan 1, 2021•0 citations

Floquet generation of Majorana edge modes and topological invariants

Diptiman Sen, Manisha Thakurathi, Aavishkar A. Patel +2 more

z direction. We show that varying the chemical potential (or magnetic field) periodically in time can produce Majorana modes at the ends of a long chain. We discuss two kinds of periodic driving, periodic �-function kicks and a simple harmonic variation with time. We discuss some distinctive features of the end modes such as the inverse participation ratio of their wave functions and their Floquet eigenvalues which are always equal to ±1 for time-reversal symmetric systems. For the case of periodic �-function kicks, we use the effective Hamiltonian of a system with periodic boundary conditions to define two topological invariants. The first invariant is a well-known winding number while the second invariant has not appeared in the literature before. The second invariant is more powerful in that it always correctly predicts the numbers of end modes with Floquet eigenvalues equal to +1 and −1, while the first invariant does not. We find that the number of end modes can become very large as the driving frequency decreases. We show that periodic �-function kicks in the hopping and superconducting terms can also produce end modes. Finally, we study the effect of electron-phonon interactions (which are relevant at finite temperatures) and a random noise in the chemical potential on the Majorana modes.

Bulletin of the American Physical Society•Mar 6, 2014•0 citations

Majorana Edge modes of Kitaev Chain with Multiple Time Periodic Driving

Huan‐Yu Wang, Lin Zhuang, W. M. Liu

Floquet Majorana edge modes capture the topological features of periodically driven superconductors. We present a Kitaev chain with multiple time periodic driving and demonstrate how the avoidance of bands crossing is altered, which gives rise to new regions supporting Majorana edge modes. A one dimensional generalized method was proposed to predict Majorana edge modes via the Zak phase of the Floquet bands. We also study the time independent effective Hamiltonian at high frequency limit and introduce diverse index to characterize topological phases with different relative phase between the multiple driving. Our work enriches the physics of driven system and paves the way for locating Majorana edge modes in larger parameter space.

arXiv:1910.10911•Oct 24, 2019•0 citations

Time-Crystalline Topological Superconductors

Aaron Chew, David F. Mross, Jason Alicea

Time crystals form when arbitrary physical states of a periodically driven system spontaneously break discrete time-translation symmetry. We introduce one-dimensional time-crystalline topological superconductors, for which time-translation symmetry breaking and topological physics intertwine-yielding anomalous Floquet Majorana modes that are not possible in free-fermion systems. Such a phase exhibits a bulk magnetization that returns to its original form after two drive periods, together with Majorana end modes that recover their initial form only after four drive periods. We propose experimental implementations and detection schemes for this new state.

arXiv:1907.12570•Physical Review Letters•Mar 5, 2020•12 citations

Floquet engineering of long-range p -wave superconductivity

M. Benito, Álvaro Gómez-León, V. M. Bastidas +2 more

Floquet Majorana fermions appear as steady states at the boundary of time-periodic topological phases of matter. In this work, we theoretically study the main features of these exotic topological phases in the periodically driven one-dimensional Kitaev model. By controlling the ac fields, we can predict topological phase transitions that should give rise to signatures of Majorana states in experiments. Moreover, the knowledge of the time dependence of these Majorana states allows one to manipulate them. Our work contains a complete analysis of the monochromatic driving in different frequency regimes.

arXiv:1409.0546•Physical Review B•Nov 19, 2014•97 citations
Realizing Majorana modes (MMs) in condensed-matter systems is of vast experimental and theoretical interests, and some signatures of MMs have been measured already. To facilitate future experimental observations and to explore further applications of MMs, generating many MMs at ease in an experimentally accessible manner has become one important issue. This task is achieved here in a one-dimensional ppp-wave superconductor system with the nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor interactions. In particular, a periodic modulation of some system parameters can induce an effective long-range interaction (as suggested by the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula) and may recover time-reversal symmetry already broken in undriven cases. By exploiting these two independent mechanisms at once we have established a general method in generating many Floquet MMs via periodic driving.
We show how Majorana end modes can be generated in a one-dimensional system by varying some of the parameters in the Hamiltonian periodically in time. The specific model we consider is a chain containing spinless electrons with a nearest-neighbor hopping amplitude, a ppp-wave superconducting term, and a chemical potential; this is equivalent to a spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ chain with anisotropic XYXYXY couplings between nearest neighbors and a magnetic field applied in the $\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{z}$ direction. We show that varying the chemical potential (or magnetic field) periodically in time can produce Majorana modes at the ends of a long chain. We discuss two kinds of periodic driving, periodic $\ensuremath{\delta}$-function kicks, and a simple harmonic variation with time. We discuss some distinctive features of the end modes such as the inverse participation ratio of their wave functions and their Floquet eigenvalues which are always equal to $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1$ for time-reversal-symmetric systems. For the case of periodic $\ensuremath{\delta}$-function kicks, we use the effective Hamiltonian of a system with periodic boundary conditions to define two topological invariants. The first invariant is a well-known winding number, while the second invariant has not appeared in the literature before. The second invariant is more powerful in that it always correctly predicts the numbers of end modes with Floquet eigenvalues equal to +1+1+1 and $\ensuremath{-}1$, while the first invariant does not. We find that the number of end modes can become very large as the driving frequency decreases. We show that periodic $\ensuremath{\delta}$-function kicks in the hopping and superconducting terms can also produce end modes. Finally, we study the effect of electron-phonon interactions (which are relevant at finite temperatures) and a random noise in the chemical potential on the Majorana modes.
The topic of Majorana zero modes has been a focal point of the condensed matter physicscommunity in recent times due in part to their potential applications in quantum computation.Most notably, the exotic exchange statistics of Majorana zero modes form the basis oftopologically protected quantum gates. The physical exchange, or braiding, of Majorana zeromodes is often modeled in two-dimensional systems or by using networks of wires. Recentwork has established that Majorana zero modes can be braided in a purely one-dimensionalsetting with a periodic, or Floquet, drive. Specifically, the work of Bauer et al. in Ref.[1] demonstrates that a working braiding protocol can be simulated on a Kitaev chain withperiodically modulated parameters. This Floquet system gives rise to both Majorana zeromodes and Majorana pi modes, the latter of which serves as an additional degree of freedomin the braiding protocol.We reproduce the results of Ref. [1] through numerical simulation and extend theirbraiding protocol such that it includes both disorder and interactions. We demonstrate thatthe protocol remains successful when the disorder is weak compared to the parameters of thesystem. In the case of strong disorder, we demonstrate that the protocol fails. In addition,we show that the protocol is quite sensitive to the presence of interactions. We illustratethat interactions cause a severe delocalization of the Majorana zero modes leading to thefailure of the protocol
z direction. We show that varying the chemical potential (or magnetic field) periodically in time can produce Majorana modes at the ends of a long chain. We discuss two kinds of periodic driving, periodic �-function kicks and a simple harmonic variation with time. We discuss some distinctive features of the end modes such as the inverse participation ratio of their wave functions and their Floquet eigenvalues which are always equal to ±1 for time-reversal symmetric systems. For the case of periodic �-function kicks, we use the effective Hamiltonian of a system with periodic boundary conditions to define two topological invariants. The first invariant is a well-known winding number while the second invariant has not appeared in the literature before. The second invariant is more powerful in that it always correctly predicts the numbers of end modes with Floquet eigenvalues equal to +1 and −1, while the first invariant does not. We find that the number of end modes can become very large as the driving frequency decreases. We show that periodic �-function kicks in the hopping and superconducting terms can also produce end modes. Finally, we study the effect of electron-phonon interactions (which are relevant at finite temperatures) and a random noise in the chemical potential on the Majorana modes.
Floquet Majorana edge modes capture the topological features of periodically driven superconductors. We present a Kitaev chain with multiple time periodic driving and demonstrate how the avoidance of bands crossing is altered, which gives rise to new regions supporting Majorana edge modes. A one dimensional generalized method was proposed to predict Majorana edge modes via the Zak phase of the Floquet bands. We also study the time independent effective Hamiltonian at high frequency limit and introduce diverse index to characterize topological phases with different relative phase between the multiple driving. Our work enriches the physics of driven system and paves the way for locating Majorana edge modes in larger parameter space.
Time crystals form when arbitrary physical states of a periodically driven system spontaneously break discrete time-translation symmetry. We introduce one-dimensional time-crystalline topological superconductors, for which time-translation symmetry breaking and topological physics intertwine-yielding anomalous Floquet Majorana modes that are not possible in free-fermion systems. Such a phase exhibits a bulk magnetization that returns to its original form after two drive periods, together with Majorana end modes that recover their initial form only after four drive periods. We propose experimental implementations and detection schemes for this new state.
Floquet Majorana fermions appear as steady states at the boundary of time-periodic topological phases of matter. In this work, we theoretically study the main features of these exotic topological phases in the periodically driven one-dimensional Kitaev model. By controlling the ac fields, we can predict topological phase transitions that should give rise to signatures of Majorana states in experiments. Moreover, the knowledge of the time dependence of these Majorana states allows one to manipulate them. Our work contains a complete analysis of the monochromatic driving in different frequency regimes.