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arXiv:2011.04009 · Acta Physica Polonica B

On the Boundary Conditions for the 1D Weyl–Majorana Particle in a Box

Salvatore De Vincenzo

Published Jan 1, 2020• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In (1+1) space-time dimensions, we can have two particles that are Weyl and Majorana particles at the same time---1D Weyl-Majorana particles. That is, the right-chiral and left-chiral parts of the two-component Dirac wave function that satisfies the Majorana condition, in the Weyl representation, describe these particles, and each satisfies their own Majorana condition. Naturally, the nonzero component of each of these two two-component wave functions satisfies a Weyl equation. We investigate and discuss this issue and demonstrate that for a 1D Weyl-Majorana particle in a box, the nonzero components, and therefore the chiral wave functions, only admit the periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions. From the latter two boundary conditions, we can only construct four boundary conditions for the entire Dirac wave function. Then, we demonstrate that these four boundary conditions are also included within the most general set of self-adjoint boundary conditions for a 1D Majorana particle in a box.

DOI
10.5506/aphyspolb.51.2055

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In (1+1) space-time dimensions, we can have two particles that are Weyl and Majorana particles at the same time---1D Weyl-Majorana particles. That is, the right-chiral and left-chiral parts of the two-component Dirac wave function that satisfies the Majorana condition, in the Weyl representation, describe these particles, and each satisfies their own Majorana condition. Naturally, the nonzero component of each of these two two-component wave functions satisfies a Weyl equation. We investigate and discuss this issue and demonstrate that for a 1D Weyl-Majorana particle in a box, the nonzero components, and therefore the chiral wave functions, only admit the periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions. From the latter two boundary conditions, we can only construct four boundary conditions for the entire Dirac wave function. Then, we demonstrate that these four boundary conditions are also included within the most general set of self-adjoint boundary conditions for a 1D Majorana particle in a box.
Abstract: We study boundary states for Dirac fermions in d = 1 + 1 dimensions that preserve Abelian chiral symmetries, meaning that the left- and right-moving fermions carry different charges. We derive simple expressions, in terms of the fermion charge assignments, for the boundary central charge and for the ground state degeneracy of the system when two different boundary conditions are imposed at either end of an interval. We show that all such boundary states fall into one of two classes, related to SPT phases supported by (−1)F , which are characterised by the existence of an unpaired Majorana zero mode.
Abstract We study boundary states for Dirac fermions in d = 1 + 1 dimensions that preserve Abelian chiral symmetries, meaning that the left- and right-moving fermions carry different charges. We derive simple expressions, in terms of the fermion charge assignments, for the boundary central charge and for the ground state degeneracy of the system when two different boundary conditions are imposed at either end of an interval. We show that all such boundary states fall into one of two classes, related to SPT phases supported by (−1)F , which are characterised by the existence of an unpaired Majorana zero mode.
We calculate formal time derivatives of the mean values of the standard position, velocity, and mechanical momentum operators, i. e., the Ehrenfest theorem for a one-dimensional Dirac particle in the coordinate representation.We show that these derivatives contain boundary terms that essentially depend on the values taken there by characteristic bilinear densities.We do not automatically take the boundary terms to vanish (as is usually done); nevertheless, we relate the boundary terms to similar terms that must be zero if one requires the hermiticity of certain specific unbounded operators.Throughout the article, we thoroughly discuss and illustrate all these aspects, which include the relations to certain boundary conditions.To clarify, we call our approach formal because all operations involving operators (for example, some operators products) are performed without respecting the restrictions imposed by the sets of functions on which the self-adjoint operators can act.Moreover, the Dirac Hamiltonian that we consider in our calculations contains a potential that is the time component of a Lorentz two-vector; nevertheless, we also obtain and concisely discuss the Ehrenfest theorem for a Hamiltonian with the most general Lorentz potential in (1+1) dimensions.
We show that there are novel generalizations of statistics for identical particles in one dimension. These arise due to possible boundary conditions on wave functions, or equivalently due to δ-function interactions, at points of coincidence of particle coordinates. Special choices of these boundary conditions describe bosons, fermions or paraparticles. The general solution for the boundary conditions involves vector-valued wave functions and statistics with non-Abelian features, even though the classical configuration space has an Abelian fundamental group. Physical models leading to such non-Abelian statistics, involving for example δ-function interactions of spins, are constructed. Properties under parity and time reversal of the new boundary conditions are studied. It is shown that the Bethe ansatz does not always give eigenstates of energy. When it does, the wave numbers in the ansatz for three or more particles must satisfy a weaker form of the Yang-Baxter equations and certain additional equations. The energy spectrum and wave functions for identical particles on R1 or S1 are discussed in some simple cases. Our work generalizes the previous work of Lieb and Liniger, Lieb, Yang and Leinaas and Myrheim.
Proximity-induced superconductivity in low-dimensional systems offers a powerful pathway to engineer topological superconducting phases in, otherwise, non-superconducting systems. These exotic phases are of fundamental and technological interest due to the presence of robust zero-energy modes, the Majorana bound states. In this work, we propose a theoretical framework to realize Majorana bound states from the edge states of a two-dimensional semi-Dirac system. This anisotropic system, under specific conditions, can host non-chiral edge states that propagate only along particular edges, effectively forming separated one-dimensional channels. We show that the interplay between Rashba spin-orbit coupling and a Zeeman field on this setup provides the right conditions to get an effective p-wave pairing between the edge states by proximity with a s-wave superconductor. In finite geometries, each edge can independently undergo a topological phase transition into a one-dimensional topological superconductor and give rise to four zero-energy modes localized at the strip corners. At low energies, the edge states subspace admits a description in terms of coupled Kitaev chains, providing a clear picture of the origin, robustness, and tunability of the corner Majorana modes. Our results establish semi-Dirac materials as a natural platform for realizing Majorana modes in two dimensions without relying on engineered nanostructures, vortices, or crystalline higher-order topology.
One-dimensional particle states are constructed according to orthogonality conditions, without requiring boundary conditions. Free particle states are constructed using Dirac's delta function orthogonality conditions. The states (doublets) depend on two quantum numbers: energy and parity. With the aid of projection operators the particles are confined to a constrained region, in a way similar to the action of an infinite well potential. From the resulting overcomplete basis only the mutually orthogonal states are selected. Four solutions are found, corresponding to different non-commuting Hamiltonians. Their energy eigenstates are labeled with the main quantum number n and parity "+" or "-". The energy eigenvalues are functions of n only. The four cases correspond to different boundary conditions: (I) the wave function vanishes on the boundary, (II) the derivative of the wavefunction vanishes on the boundary,(III) periodic (symmetric) boundary conditions, (IV) periodic (antisymmetric)boundary conditions . Among the four cases, only solution (III) forms a complete basis in the sense that any function in the constrained region, can be expanded with it. By extending the boundaries of the constrained region to infinity, only solution (III) converges uniformly to the free particle states. Orthogonality seems to be a more basic requirement than boundary conditions. By using projection operators, confinement of the particle to a definite region can be achieved in a conceptually simple and unambiguous way, and physical operators can be written so that they act only in the confined region.