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arXiv:2505.01610 · Journal of Physics Condensed Matter

Effect of interatomic repulsion and quasi-degenerate states on a Kitaev-transmon qubit based on double quantum dots

Clara Palacios, Armando A. Aligia

Published Jan 21, 2026• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract We investigate the effect of interatomic Coulomb repulsion V and particular states disregarded previously on the Kitaev-transmon system proposed by Pino et al (2024 Phys. Rev. B 109 075101) which consists of a Josephson junction connecting two double quantum dots (DQDs) modeled by the spinless Kitaev Hamiltonian. For an isolated DQD, we demonstrate that a ‘sweet spot’ hosting ‘poor man’s Majorana’ states persist in the presence of V , provided that system parameters are appropriately tuned. For the full system, we demonstrate that, at the sweet spots of both DQDs, all eigenstates are doubly degenerate. This degeneracy arises from the existence of an operator that maps between two decoupled Hilbert subspaces. Away from the sweet spots, the microwave spectrum becomes sensitive to the choice of initial state of the system. In our study, we consider transitions from the ground state (which depending on the flux alternates between the above mentioned subspaces) to all possible excited states. This scenario corresponds to a system initially in thermal equilibrium at low temperature.

DOI
10.1088/1361-648x/ae3bc7

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Abstract We investigate the effect of interatomic Coulomb repulsion V and particular states disregarded previously on the Kitaev-transmon system proposed by Pino et al (2024 Phys. Rev. B 109 075101) which consists of a Josephson junction connecting two double quantum dots (DQDs) modeled by the spinless Kitaev Hamiltonian. For an isolated DQD, we demonstrate that a ‘sweet spot’ hosting ‘poor man’s Majorana’ states persist in the presence of V , provided that system parameters are appropriately tuned. For the full system, we demonstrate that, at the sweet spots of both DQDs, all eigenstates are doubly degenerate. This degeneracy arises from the existence of an operator that maps between two decoupled Hilbert subspaces. Away from the sweet spots, the microwave spectrum becomes sensitive to the choice of initial state of the system. In our study, we consider transitions from the ground state (which depending on the flux alternates between the above mentioned subspaces) to all possible excited states. This scenario corresponds to a system initially in thermal equilibrium at low temperature.
Minimal Kitaev chains composed of two semiconducting quantum dots coupled via a superconductor have emerged as a promising platform to realize and study Majorana bound states (MBSs), which appear for fine-tuned configurations. We propose a hybrid qubit based on a Josephson junction between two such double quantum dots (DQDs) embedded in a superconducting qubit geometry. The qubit makes use of the $4\ensuremath{\pi}$-Josephson effect in the Kitaev junction to create a subspace based on the even/odd fermionic parities of the two DQD arrays hosting MBSs. Deep in the transmon regime, we demonstrate that by performing circuit QED spectroscopy on such a hybrid Kitaev-transmon ``Kitmon'' qubit, one could observe distinct MBS features in perfect agreement with precise analytical predictions in terms of DQD parameters only. This agreement allows us to extract the Majorana polarization in the junction from the microwave response.
We theoretically explore the emergence of strong zero modes in a two-site chain consisting of two quantum dots coupled due to a central dot that mediates electron hopping and singlet superconducting pairing. In the presence of time-reversal symmetry, the on-site Coulomb interaction leads to a three-fold ground-state degeneracy when tuning the system to a sweet spot as a function of the inter-dot couplings. This degeneracy is protected against changes of the dot energies in the same way as “poor man’s” Majorana bound states in short Kitaev chains. In the limit of strong interactions, this protection is maximal and the entire spectrum becomes triply degenerate, indicating the emergence of a “poor man’s” version of a strong zero mode. We explain the degeneracy and protection by constructing corresponding Majorana Kramers-pair operators and \mathbb{Z}_3 ℤ 3 -parafermion operators. The strong zero modes share many properties of Majorana bound states in short Kitaev chains, including the stability of zero-bias peaks in the conductance and the behavior upon coupling to an additional quantum dot. However, they can be distinguished through finite-bias spectroscopy and the exhibit a different behavior when scaling to longer chains.
The Fermi-Hubbard model describes a large variety of condensed matter systems with spinful fermions and strong interactions. On the other hand, the Kitaev chain model deals with noninteracting spinless fermions and produces robust ground-state degeneracies that give rise to Majorana bound states. In this Letter, we connect these two domains by experimentally studying small arrays of quantum dots (QDs) coupled via superconductors. Without a magnetic field, this system constitutes a Fermi-Hubbard model with intersite superconducting correlations. Using two coupled QDs, we find sweet spots in parameter space where we observe zero-bias conductance peaks that are robust against on-site perturbations of the QDs, similar to the behavior expected of a two-site Kitaev chain. This observation is consistent with the presence of Majorana Kramers pairs or Z_{3} parafermions in this minimal system. Extending to three sites, we find that the spinful system scales very differently compared to the spinless Kitaev chain. When the same sweet-spot conditions are satisfied, the ground state degeneracy of the full three-site system is lifted. The degeneracy can be restored by tuning the superconducting phase difference between the hybrid segments, but the robustness against on-site detunings is lost. Our findings are a first step in studying ground-state degeneracies in strongly interacting Fermi-Hubbard systems with superconducting correlations.
We solve the problem of an interacting quantum dot embedded in a Josephson junction between two superconductors with finite charging energy described by the transmon (Cooper pair box) Hamiltonian. The approach is based on the flat-band approximation of the Richardson model, which reduces the Hilbert space to the point where exact diagonalization is possible while retaining all states that are necessary to describe the low-energy phenomena. The presented method accounts for the physics of the quantum dot, the Josephson effect, and the Coulomb repulsion (charging energy) at the same level. In particular, it captures the quantum fluctuations of the superconducting phase as well as the coupling between the superconducting phase and the quantum dot (spin) degrees of freedom. The method can be directly applied for modeling Andreev spin qubits embedded in transmon circuits in all parameter regimes, for describing time-dependent processes, and for the calculation of transition matrix elements for microwave-driven transmon, spin-flip, and mixed transitions that involve coupling to charge or current degrees of freedom.
Motivated by the recent experimental realization of a minimal Kitaev chain in quantum dot systems, we present our theoretical findings on the dynamics and fusion of MZMs at or near the “sweet spot” th = Δ (where the fermionic hopping th and superconducting coupling Δ are equal). We investigated the dynamics and fusion of MZMs using time-dependent real-space local density-of-states methods. The movement of Majoranas and the detection of fusion channels are crucial for topological quantum computations. Additionally, we discuss our recent discovery of exotic “multi-site” MZMs in Y-shaped Kitaev wires, which is important for the potential braiding of Majoranas in Y-junctions formed from arrays of quantum dots. Finally, we present results on ”non-trivial” fusion using canonical Kitaev wires at the sweet spot.
The possibility of engineering artificial Kitaev chains in arrays of quantum dots coupled via narrow superconducting regions has emerged as an attractive way to overcome the disorder issues that complicate the realization and detection of topological superconducting phases in other platforms. Although a true topological phase would require long chains, a two-site chain realized in a double quantum dot can already be tuned to points in parameter space where it hosts zero-energy states that seem identical to the Majorana bound states that characterize a topological phase. These states have been named “poor man’s Majorana bound states” (PMMs) because they lack formal topological protection. In this work, we propose a pathway for next-generation experiments on PMMs. The pathway starts with experiments to characterize a single pair of PMMs by measuring the Majorana quality and then moves on to initialization and readout of the parity of a PMM pair, which allows the measurement of quasiparticle poisoning times. The next step is to couple two PMM systems to form a qubit. We discuss measurements of the coherence time of such a qubit, as well as a test of Majorana fusion rules in the same setup. Finally, we propose and analyze three different types of braidinglike experiments that require more complex device geometries. Our conclusions are supported by calculations based on a realistic model with interacting and spinful quantum dots, as well as by simpler models to gain physical insight. Our calculations show that it is indeed possible to demonstrate non-Abelian physics in minimal two-site Kitaev chains despite the lack of a true topological phase. However, our findings also reveal that doing so requires some extra care, appropriately modified protocols, and awareness of the details of this particular platform. Published by the American Physical Society 2024