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:1512.06615 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Transport properties of hybrid topological superconductor devices in contact with an environment

A. Komnik

Published Mar 11, 2016• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We investigate the transport properties of different realizations of one-dimensional quantum wires coupled to a number of external electrodes in terms of the full counting statistics. Focusing on the setups in which edge states of Majorana type are realizable, we analyze the effects of the exchange of charge carriers with the environment. We find a very strong suppression of the nonlocal current correlations, which decay exponentially with the coupling strength and the wire length. Local properties such as transport currents and current correlations measured at individual contacts between the wire and external electrodes turn out to develop an asymmetry when they are energy resolved. We provide a number of exact analytical solutions and discuss experimental implications of our findings.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.93.125117

Related papers

Edge states, Majorana fermions, and topological order in superconducting wires with generalized boundary conditions

Alfonso Maiellaro, Francesco Romeo, Fabrizio Illuminati

We study the properties of one-dimensional topological superconductors under the influence of generic boundary conditions mimicking the coupling with external environments. We identify a general four-parameter classification of the boundary effects and show that particle-hole and reflection symmetries can be broken or preserved by appropriately fixing the boundary parameters. When the particle-hole symmetry is broken, the topological protection of the edge modes is lost due to the hybridization with the external degrees of freedom. We assess the robustness of the edge modes in the various regimes by considering different quantifiers of topological properties. In particular, we investigate the resilience of the long-distance, edge-to-edge quantum mutual information and squashed entanglement, measuring the nonlocal correlations of the Majorana excitations. Besides their relevance for the open dynamics of topological systems, these results may provide a useful guide to the appropriate embedding of low-dimensional topological systems on nanodevices in realistic conditions.

arXiv:2207.01423•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Oct 10, 2022•8 citations

Dissipative topological superconductors in number-conserving systems

Fernando Iemini, Davide Rossini, Rosario Fazio +2 more

We discuss the dissipative preparation of $p\text{-wave}$ superconductors in number-conserving one-dimensional fermionic systems. We focus on two setups: the first one entails a single wire coupled to a bath, whereas in the second one the environment is connected to a two-leg ladder. Both settings lead to stationary states which feature the bulk properties of a $p\text{-wave}$ superconductor, identified in this number-conserving setting through the long-distance behavior of the proper $p\text{-wave}$ correlations. The two schemes differ in the fact that the steady state of the single wire is not characterized by topological order, whereas the two-leg ladder hosts Majorana zero modes, which are decoupled from damping and exponentially localized at the edges. Our analytical results are complemented by a numerical study based both on an exact representation of the density matrix and on a matrix-product-density-operator one. With these tools we characterize the steady-state properties of the protocols, their asymptotic decay rate, and their robustness.

arXiv:1512.04413•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Mar 7, 2016•60 citations

Strong Coulomb interactions in the problem of Majorana modes in a wire of the nontrivial topological class BDI

S. V. Aksenov, A. O. Zlotnikov, M. S. Shustin

In this study, the problem of strong Coulomb interactions in topological superconducting wire is analyzed by means of the density-matrix-renormalization-group (DMRG) approach. To analyze properties of edge states in the BDI-class structure, a quantity called Majorana polarization is used. From its dependence on wire length and an entanglement-spectrum degeneracy, topological phase diagrams are obtained. The DMRG calculations for the Shubin-Vonsovsky--type model of the wire show the transformation of phases with Majorana single and double modes (MSMs and MDMs, respectively) under the increase of onsite and intersite correlations. In particular, we demonstrate different scenarios including the possibilities of both induction and suppression of the MSMs and MDMs. It is shown that in the strongly correlated regime, the contributions of single-particle excitations to the Majorana-type states significantly decrease at low magnetic fxields. Moreover, the $t\ensuremath{-}{J}^{*}\ensuremath{-}V$ model is derived allowing to study the effective interactions and improve the DMRG numerics. It is found out that in the limiting case of the effective Hamiltonian with infinitely strong onsite repulsion, $t$ model, the topological phases are destroyed. Finally, the ways to probe the MSMs and MDMs via the features of caloric functions are discussed.

arXiv:1911.01035•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Mar 30, 2020•38 citations

Measuring fermion parity correlations and relaxation rates in one-dimensional topological superconducting wires

F. J. Burnell, Alexander Shnirman, Yuval Oreg

Zero-energy Majorana fermion states (Majoranas) can arise at the ends of a semiconducting wire in proximity with a superconductor. A first generation of experiments has detected a zero bias conductance peak in these systems that strongly suggests these Majoranas do exist; however, a definitive demonstration of the long-ranged entanglement that is crucial for potential applications in quantum computing has yet to be carried out. This work discusses two possible measurement schemes to detect this long-ranged entanglement in a wire system with two coupled pairs of Majoranas, by varying the coupling between one pair while measuring the fermion parity of the second pair. First, in a system with two coupled pairs of Majoranas, we discuss how varying the coupling of one pair in time, while measuring temporal fermion parity correlations of the second pair, allows for an experimental probe of long-ranged Majorana entanglement. Second, we show that the power spectrum of the charge noise (fermion parity noise) of one pair contains signatures of these correlations, as well as allowing one to infer the parity relaxation rate.

arXiv:1306.6622•Physical Review B•Dec 18, 2013•17 citations

Transport in a one-dimensional wire connected to leads and proximity effects

Inès Safi A, Heinz J. Schulz

We investigate transport through a finite interacting wire connected to noninteracting leads. The conductance of the pure wire is not renormalized by the interactions for any spatial variation of the interaction parameters $u,K$, and not even for Coulomb interactions restricted to the wire. We rigorously relate the conductance to the transmission, that turns out to be perfect. If $K$ varies abruptly at the contacts, an electron incident on the wire is reflected into a series of partial spatially separated charges which sum up to unity. For attractive interactions, the reflection at the contact is similar to Andreev reflection on a gapless superconductor. This process affects the density-density or pairing correlation functions: they are enhanced on the bulk of the wire as in an infinite Luttinger liquid, then extend to the external noninteracting leads in a way reminiscent of the proximity effect. The effect of impurities is governed by the wire parameter but is affected by the leads close to the contacts. Our results give a possible explanation to recent experiments on quantum wires by Tarucha et al.

arXiv:cond-mat/9711082•Nov 10, 1997•0 citations

Model for topological p -wave superconducting wires with disorder and interactions

Frederick del Pozo, Loïc Herviou, Olesia Dmytruk +1 more

We present a comprehensive theoretical study of interacting and disordered topological phases of coupled Kitaev wires, which may support further realistic applications of Majorana fermions. We develop a variety of analytical, mathematical, and numerical methods for one- and two-coupled wires, associated with a topological marker accessible from real-space correlation functions on the wire(s). We verify the stability of the topological superconducting phase and quantify disorder effects close to the quantum phase transitions, e.g., through two-point correlation functions or using a renormalization group analysis of disorder. We show that the double critical Ising (DCI) phase---a fractional Majorana liquid characterized by a pair of half central charges and topological numbers---is stabilized by strong interactions against disorder, which respects the inversion symmetry between the wires (i.e., parity conservation on each wire). In the presence of an interwire hopping term, the DCI phase turns into a protected topological phase with a bulk gap. We study the localization physics developing along the critical line for weaker interactions.

arXiv:2408.02105•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Feb 28, 2025•6 citations
We investigate the transport properties of different realizations of one-dimensional quantum wires coupled to a number of external electrodes in terms of the full counting statistics. Focusing on the setups in which edge states of Majorana type are realizable, we analyze the effects of the exchange of charge carriers with the environment. We find a very strong suppression of the nonlocal current correlations, which decay exponentially with the coupling strength and the wire length. Local properties such as transport currents and current correlations measured at individual contacts between the wire and external electrodes turn out to develop an asymmetry when they are energy resolved. We provide a number of exact analytical solutions and discuss experimental implications of our findings.
We study the properties of one-dimensional topological superconductors under the influence of generic boundary conditions mimicking the coupling with external environments. We identify a general four-parameter classification of the boundary effects and show that particle-hole and reflection symmetries can be broken or preserved by appropriately fixing the boundary parameters. When the particle-hole symmetry is broken, the topological protection of the edge modes is lost due to the hybridization with the external degrees of freedom. We assess the robustness of the edge modes in the various regimes by considering different quantifiers of topological properties. In particular, we investigate the resilience of the long-distance, edge-to-edge quantum mutual information and squashed entanglement, measuring the nonlocal correlations of the Majorana excitations. Besides their relevance for the open dynamics of topological systems, these results may provide a useful guide to the appropriate embedding of low-dimensional topological systems on nanodevices in realistic conditions.
We discuss the dissipative preparation of p-wavep\text{-wave}p-wave superconductors in number-conserving one-dimensional fermionic systems. We focus on two setups: the first one entails a single wire coupled to a bath, whereas in the second one the environment is connected to a two-leg ladder. Both settings lead to stationary states which feature the bulk properties of a p-wavep\text{-wave}p-wave superconductor, identified in this number-conserving setting through the long-distance behavior of the proper p-wavep\text{-wave}p-wave correlations. The two schemes differ in the fact that the steady state of the single wire is not characterized by topological order, whereas the two-leg ladder hosts Majorana zero modes, which are decoupled from damping and exponentially localized at the edges. Our analytical results are complemented by a numerical study based both on an exact representation of the density matrix and on a matrix-product-density-operator one. With these tools we characterize the steady-state properties of the protocols, their asymptotic decay rate, and their robustness.
In this study, the problem of strong Coulomb interactions in topological superconducting wire is analyzed by means of the density-matrix-renormalization-group (DMRG) approach. To analyze properties of edge states in the BDI-class structure, a quantity called Majorana polarization is used. From its dependence on wire length and an entanglement-spectrum degeneracy, topological phase diagrams are obtained. The DMRG calculations for the Shubin-Vonsovsky--type model of the wire show the transformation of phases with Majorana single and double modes (MSMs and MDMs, respectively) under the increase of onsite and intersite correlations. In particular, we demonstrate different scenarios including the possibilities of both induction and suppression of the MSMs and MDMs. It is shown that in the strongly correlated regime, the contributions of single-particle excitations to the Majorana-type states significantly decrease at low magnetic fxields. Moreover, the $t\ensuremath{-}{J}^{*}\ensuremath{-}V$ model is derived allowing to study the effective interactions and improve the DMRG numerics. It is found out that in the limiting case of the effective Hamiltonian with infinitely strong onsite repulsion, ttt model, the topological phases are destroyed. Finally, the ways to probe the MSMs and MDMs via the features of caloric functions are discussed.
Zero-energy Majorana fermion states (Majoranas) can arise at the ends of a semiconducting wire in proximity with a superconductor. A first generation of experiments has detected a zero bias conductance peak in these systems that strongly suggests these Majoranas do exist; however, a definitive demonstration of the long-ranged entanglement that is crucial for potential applications in quantum computing has yet to be carried out. This work discusses two possible measurement schemes to detect this long-ranged entanglement in a wire system with two coupled pairs of Majoranas, by varying the coupling between one pair while measuring the fermion parity of the second pair. First, in a system with two coupled pairs of Majoranas, we discuss how varying the coupling of one pair in time, while measuring temporal fermion parity correlations of the second pair, allows for an experimental probe of long-ranged Majorana entanglement. Second, we show that the power spectrum of the charge noise (fermion parity noise) of one pair contains signatures of these correlations, as well as allowing one to infer the parity relaxation rate.
We investigate transport through a finite interacting wire connected to noninteracting leads. The conductance of the pure wire is not renormalized by the interactions for any spatial variation of the interaction parameters u,Ku,Ku,K, and not even for Coulomb interactions restricted to the wire. We rigorously relate the conductance to the transmission, that turns out to be perfect. If KKK varies abruptly at the contacts, an electron incident on the wire is reflected into a series of partial spatially separated charges which sum up to unity. For attractive interactions, the reflection at the contact is similar to Andreev reflection on a gapless superconductor. This process affects the density-density or pairing correlation functions: they are enhanced on the bulk of the wire as in an infinite Luttinger liquid, then extend to the external noninteracting leads in a way reminiscent of the proximity effect. The effect of impurities is governed by the wire parameter but is affected by the leads close to the contacts. Our results give a possible explanation to recent experiments on quantum wires by Tarucha et al.
We present a comprehensive theoretical study of interacting and disordered topological phases of coupled Kitaev wires, which may support further realistic applications of Majorana fermions. We develop a variety of analytical, mathematical, and numerical methods for one- and two-coupled wires, associated with a topological marker accessible from real-space correlation functions on the wire(s). We verify the stability of the topological superconducting phase and quantify disorder effects close to the quantum phase transitions, e.g., through two-point correlation functions or using a renormalization group analysis of disorder. We show that the double critical Ising (DCI) phase---a fractional Majorana liquid characterized by a pair of half central charges and topological numbers---is stabilized by strong interactions against disorder, which respects the inversion symmetry between the wires (i.e., parity conservation on each wire). In the presence of an interwire hopping term, the DCI phase turns into a protected topological phase with a bulk gap. We study the localization physics developing along the critical line for weaker interactions.