Robustness of edge states and non-Abelian excitations of topological states of matter promises quantum memory and quantum processing, which are naturally immune to microscopic imperfections such as static disorder. However, topological properties will not in general protect quantum systems from time-dependent disorder or noise. Here we take the example of a network of Kitaev wires with Majorana edge modes storing qubits to investigate the effects of classical noise in the crossover from the quasistatic to the fast fluctuation regime. We present detailed results for the Majorana edge correlations, and fidelity of braiding operations for both global and local noise sources preserving parity symmetry, such as random chemical potentials and phase fluctuations. While in general noise will induce heating and dephasing, we identify examples of long-lived quantum correlations in the presence of fast noise due to motional narrowing, where external noise drives the system rapidly between the topological and nontopological phases.
Robustness of edge states and non-Abelian excitations of topological states of matter promises quantum memory and quantum processing, which are naturally immune to microscopic imperfections such as static disorder. However, topological properties will not in general protect quantum systems from time-dependent disorder or noise. Here we take the example of a network of Kitaev wires with Majorana edge modes storing qubits to investigate the effects of classical noise in the crossover from the quasistatic to the fast fluctuation regime. We present detailed results for the Majorana edge correlations, and fidelity of braiding operations for both global and local noise sources preserving parity symmetry, such as random chemical potentials and phase fluctuations. While in general noise will induce heating and dephasing, we identify examples of long-lived quantum correlations in the presence of fast noise due to motional narrowing, where external noise drives the system rapidly between the topological and nontopological phases.
Majorana zero modes have emerged as one of the most promising platforms for topological quantum computation, since their non-Abelian braiding statistics allow quantum information to be encoded nonlocally and manipulated through braiding operations that are, in principle, protected against local perturbations. In practice, however, a braid is only as robust as its physical implementation: finite-time operation, residual couplings, and environmental noise can all convert local excitations into logical errors during the exchange process. Here, we address this question through a microscopic comparison of two representative braiding architectures, a nanowire trijunction and a quantum-dot-assisted setup, simulating the full time-dependent Bogoliubov--de Gennes dynamics under both noiseless and noisy conditions. We show that the dot-assisted architecture consistently achieves a lower error over a shorter timescale than the trijunction, owing to its more localized exchange mechanism. This advantage persists in the presence of noise, and a spatially resolved analysis further reveals that, in the dot-assisted geometry, fast noise localized on the dot produces a smaller error than equivalent noise on the wires, whereas slow, quasi-static noise on the dot becomes the dominant limitation. Taken together, these findings link the different error contributions directly to device geometry, pointing to concrete design principles for noise-resilient Majorana-based quantum gates.
Topology-related ideas might lead to noise-resilient quantum computing. For example, it is expected that the slow spatial exchange (``braiding'') of Majorana zero modes in superconductors yields quantum gates that are robust against disorder. Here, we report our numerical experiments, which describe the dynamics of a Majorana qubit built from quantum dots controlled by time-dependent gate voltages. Our protocol incorporates nonprotected control, braiding-based protected control, and readout of the Majorana qubit. We use the Kitaev chain model for the simulations, and we focus on the case when the main source of errors is quasistatic charge noise affecting the hybridization energy splitting of the Majorana modes. We provide quantitative guidelines to suppress both diabatic errors and disorder-induced qubit dephasing, such that a fidelity plateau is observed as the hallmark of the topological quantum gate. Our simulations predict realistic features that are expected to be seen in future braiding experiments with Majorana zero modes and other topological qubit architectures.
Topological quantum computation encodes quantum information nonlocally by nucleating non-Abelian anyons separated by distances L, typically spanning the qubit device size. This nonlocality renders topological qubits exponentially immune to dephasing from all sources of classical noise with operator support local on the scale of L. We perform detailed analytical and numerical analyses of a time-domain Ramsey-type protocol for noisy Majorana-based qubits that is designed to validate this coveted topological protection in near-term devices such as the so-called ``tetron'' design. By assessing dependence of dephasing times on tunable parameters, e.g., magnetic field, our proposed protocol can clearly distinguish a bona fide Majorana qubit from one constructed from semilocal Andreev bound states, which can otherwise closely mimic the true topological scenario in local probes. In addition, we analyze leakage of the qubit out of its low-energy manifold due to classical-noise-induced generation of quasiparticle excitations; leakage limits the qubit lifetime when the bulk gap collapses, and hence our protocol further reveals the onset of a topological phase transition. This experiment requires measurement of two nearby Majorana modes for both initialization and readout---achievable, for example, by tunnel coupling to a nearby quantum dot---but no further Majorana manipulations, and thus constitutes an enticing prebraiding experiment. Along the way, we address conceptual subtleties encountered when discussing dephasing and leakage in the context of Majorana qubits.
We discuss the effects of quantum and thermal fluctuations on the Majorana edge states in a topological atomic wire coupled to a superfluid molecular gas with gapless excitations. We find that the coupling between the Majorana edge states remains exponentially decaying with the length of the wire, even at finite temperatures smaller than the energy gap for bulk excitations in the wire. This exponential dependence is controlled solely by the localization length of the Majorana states. The fluctuations, on the other hand, provide the dominant contribution to the preexponential factor, which increases with temperature and the length of the wire. More important is that thermal fluctuations give rise to a decay of an initial correlation between Majorana edge states to its stationary value after some thermalization time. This stationary value is sensitive to the temperature and to the length of the wire, and, although vanishing in the thermodynamic limit, can still be feasible in a mesoscopic system at sufficiently low temperatures. The thermalization time, on the other hand, is found to be much larger than the typical time scales in the wire, and is sufficient for quantum operations with Majorana fermions before the temperature-induced decoherence sets in.
Quantum bits based on Majorana zero modes are expected to be robust against certain noise types, and hence provide a quantum computing platform that is superior to conventional qubits. This robustness is not complete, though: imperfections can still lead to qubit decoherence and hence to information loss. In this work, we theoretically study Majorana-qubit dephasing in a minimal model: in a Kitaev chain with quasistatic disorder. Our approach, based on numerics as well as first-order nondegenerate perturbation theory, provides a conceptually simple physical picture and predicts Gaussian dephasing. We show that as system parameters are varied, the dephasing rate due to disorder oscillates out-of-phase with respect to the oscillating Majorana splitting of the clean system. In our model, first-order dephasing sweet spots are absent if disorder is uncorrelated. We describe the crossover between uncorrelated and highly correlated disorder, and show that dephasing measurements can be used to characterize the disorder correlation length. We expect that our results will be utilized for the design and interpretation of future Majorana-qubit experiments.
We analyze propagation of quantum information along chiral Majorana edge states in two-dimensional topological materials. The use of edge states may facilitate the braiding operation, an important ingredient in topological quantum computations. For the edge of the Kitaev honeycomb model in a topological phase, we discuss how the edge states can participate in quantum-information processing, and consider a two-qubit logic gate between distant external qubits coupled to the edge. Here we analyze the influence of disorder and noise on properties of the edge states and quantum-gate fidelity. We find that realistically weak disorder does not prevent one from implementation of a high-fidelity operation via the edge.