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Majorana decoherence by bath-induced potential fluctuations

Niels Breckwoldt, Thore Posske, Michael Thorwart

Published Sep 30, 2020• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Braiding Majorana zero-modes around each other is a promising route towards topological quantum computing. Yet, two competing maximes emerge when implementing Majorana braiding in real systems: On the one hand, perfect braiding should be conducted adiabatically slowly to avoid non-topological errors. On the other hand, braiding must be conducted fast such that unavoidable decoherence effects introduced by the environment are negligible. This competition results in an intermediate time scale for Majorana braiding that is optimal, but generally not error-free. Here, we calculate this intermediate time scale for a T-junction of short one-dimensional topological superconductors coupled to a bosonic bath that generates fluctuations in the local electric potential, which stem from, e.g., environmental photons or phonons of the substrate. We thereby obtain boundaries for the speed of Majorana braiding with a predetermined gate fidelity. Our results emphasize the general susceptibility of Majorana-based information storage in finite-size systems and can serve as a guide for determining the optimal braiding times in future experiments.

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Abstract Braiding Majorana zero-modes around each other is a promising route toward topological quantum computing. Yet, two competing maxims emerge when implementing Majorana braiding in real systems: on the one hand, perfect braiding should be conducted adiabatically slowly to avoid non-topological errors. On the other hand, braiding must be conducted fast such that decoherence effects introduced by the environment are negligible, which are generally unavoidable in finite-size systems. This competition results in an intermediate time scale for Majorana braiding that is optimal, but generally not error-free. Here, we calculate this intermediate time scale for a T-junction of short one-dimensional topological superconductors coupled to a bosonic bath that generates fluctuations in the local electric potential, which stem from, e.g. environmental photons or phonons of the substrate. We thereby obtain boundaries for the speed of Majorana braiding with a predetermined gate fidelity. Our results emphasize the general susceptibility of Majorana-based information storage in finite-size systems and can serve as a guide for determining the optimal braiding times in future experiments.

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SIGNATURE OF MAJORANA MODES AND ASPECTS OF THEIR BRAIDING

Amit Nag

Majorana zero modes are emergent zero-energy quasiparticle excitations in certain superconducting systems that can be viewed as fractionalized or “half” electrons. These quasiparticles obey non-Abelian braiding statistics which is one manifestation of such half-electron character. Due to such non-Abelian braiding property, Majorana zero mode pairs hold promise as potential qubits for topological quantum computation. It is somewhat surprising that, at least theoretically, ordinary one-dimensional semiconductor systems can be induced to host such esoteric Majorana modes as edge states if some precise experimental conditions are satisfied. Because of the relative simplicity of material and experimental requirements to host Majorana modes, there has been a flurry of experimental effort to realize them in semiconductor nanowire systems. While experimental efforts have produced preliminary evidence for the presence of Majorana zero modes in these systems, a thorough confirmation is lacking. The experimental signature in question is the presence of a zero-bias conductance-peak that, while necessary, is not a sufficient criterion to establish the presence of underlying Majorana modes. Given the importance of Majorana braiding for topological quantum computation and skepticism over the presence of Majorana modes in these experimental systems, it would seem natural to attempt braiding these putative Majorana modes in the near future. In that case, an observation of non-Abelian statistics would provide the necessary and sufficient condition in favor of Majorana presence in the studied experimental systems. This thesis has three distinct parts. First, we assume perfect Majorana modes as given that can be successfully braided. In this case, we calculate the diabatic error due to the finite speed of braiding when the system is coupled to a Bosonic bath. Next, we grant that the mechanism for zero-bias conductance-peak is indeed topological, albeit the underlying Majorana modes may be imperfect (the modes are not precisely at zero energy). We study the interplay of dissipation and finite energy splitting of the Majorana modes and study its consequence regarding the probability of successful braiding. Lastly, we propose studying the correlation between independent left and right conductance measurements as a means to distinguish between a topological versus a non-topological the mechanism underlying the observed zero-bias conductance-peak.

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Effects of decoherence on diabatic errors in Majorana braiding

Zhentao Zhang, Feng Mei, Xiang‐Guo Meng +2 more

The braiding of two non-Abelian Majorana modes is important for realizing topological quantum computation. It can be achieved through tuning the coupling between the two Majorana modes to be exchanged and two ancillary Majorana modes. However, this coupling also makes the braiding subject to environment-induced decoherence. Here, we study the effects of decoherence on the diabatic errors in the braiding process for a set of time-dependent Hamiltonians with finite smoothness. To this end, we employ the master equation to calculate the diabatic excitation population for three kinds of decoherence processes. (1) Only pure dehasing: the scaling of the excitation population changed from ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}2k\ensuremath{-}2}$ to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ ($k$ is the number of the Hamiltonian's time derivatives vanishing at the initial and final times) as the braiding duration $T$ exceeds a certain value. (2) Only relaxation: the scaling transforms from ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}2k\ensuremath{-}2}$ to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ for $k=0$ and to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}a}$ ($a>3$) for $k>0$. (3) Pure dephasing and relaxation: the original scaling switches to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ first and then evolves to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ in the adiabatic limit. Interestingly, the third scaling-varying style holds even when the expectation of pure dephasing rate is much smaller than that of the relaxation rate, which is attributed to the vanishing relaxation at the turning points of the braiding.

arXiv:1902.05807•Physical Review A•Jul 16, 2019•17 citations
Braiding Majorana zero-modes around each other is a promising route towards topological quantum computing. Yet, two competing maximes emerge when implementing Majorana braiding in real systems: On the one hand, perfect braiding should be conducted adiabatically slowly to avoid non-topological errors. On the other hand, braiding must be conducted fast such that unavoidable decoherence effects introduced by the environment are negligible. This competition results in an intermediate time scale for Majorana braiding that is optimal, but generally not error-free. Here, we calculate this intermediate time scale for a T-junction of short one-dimensional topological superconductors coupled to a bosonic bath that generates fluctuations in the local electric potential, which stem from, e.g., environmental photons or phonons of the substrate. We thereby obtain boundaries for the speed of Majorana braiding with a predetermined gate fidelity. Our results emphasize the general susceptibility of Majorana-based information storage in finite-size systems and can serve as a guide for determining the optimal braiding times in future experiments.
Abstract Braiding Majorana zero-modes around each other is a promising route toward topological quantum computing. Yet, two competing maxims emerge when implementing Majorana braiding in real systems: on the one hand, perfect braiding should be conducted adiabatically slowly to avoid non-topological errors. On the other hand, braiding must be conducted fast such that decoherence effects introduced by the environment are negligible, which are generally unavoidable in finite-size systems. This competition results in an intermediate time scale for Majorana braiding that is optimal, but generally not error-free. Here, we calculate this intermediate time scale for a T-junction of short one-dimensional topological superconductors coupled to a bosonic bath that generates fluctuations in the local electric potential, which stem from, e.g. environmental photons or phonons of the substrate. We thereby obtain boundaries for the speed of Majorana braiding with a predetermined gate fidelity. Our results emphasize the general susceptibility of Majorana-based information storage in finite-size systems and can serve as a guide for determining the optimal braiding times in future experiments.
In topological quantum computing, unitary operations on qubits are performed by adiabatic braiding of non-Abelian quasiparticles, such as Majorana zero modes, and are protected from local environmental perturbations. In the adiabatic regime, with timescales set by the inverse gap of the system, the errors can be made arbitrarily small by performing the process more slowly. To enhance the performance of quantum information processing with Majorana zero modes, we apply the theory of optimal control to the diabatic dynamics of Majorana-based qubits. While we sacrifice complete topological protection, we impose constraints on the optimal protocol to take advantage of the nonlocal nature of topological information and increase the robustness of our gates. By using the Pontryagin's maximum principle, we show that robust equivalent gates to perfect adiabatic braiding can be implemented in finite times through optimal pulses. In our implementation, modifications to the device Hamiltonian are avoided. Focusing on thermally isolated systems, we study the effects of calibration errors and external white and 1/f1/f1/f (pink) noise on Majorana-based gates. While a noise-induced antiadiabatic behavior, where a slower process creates more diabatic excitations, prohibits indefinite enhancement of the robustness of the adiabatic scheme, our fast optimal protocols exhibit remarkable stability to noise and have the potential to significantly enhance the practical performance of Majorana-based information processing.
Majorana mode based topological qubits are potentially subject to diabatic errors that in principle can limit the utility of topological quantum computation. Using a combination of analytical and numerical methods we study the diabatic errors in Majorana-based topological Y junction that are coupled to a Bosonic bath in the Markovian approximation. We find that in the absence of a bath, the error can be made exponentially small with increasing braiding time, only when the time variation in the Hamiltonian is completely smooth. The presence of a dominantly dissipative Markovian bath is found to eliminate this exponential scaling of error to a power-law scaling as ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ with TTT being the braiding time. However, the inclusion of relaxation improves this scaling slightly to go as ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$. Thus, coupling of topological systems to Bosonic baths can lead to power law in braiding time diabatic errors that might limit the speed of topologically protected operations using Majorana modes.
Majorana zero modes are emergent zero-energy quasiparticle excitations in certain superconducting systems that can be viewed as fractionalized or “half” electrons. These quasiparticles obey non-Abelian braiding statistics which is one manifestation of such half-electron character. Due to such non-Abelian braiding property, Majorana zero mode pairs hold promise as potential qubits for topological quantum computation. It is somewhat surprising that, at least theoretically, ordinary one-dimensional semiconductor systems can be induced to host such esoteric Majorana modes as edge states if some precise experimental conditions are satisfied. Because of the relative simplicity of material and experimental requirements to host Majorana modes, there has been a flurry of experimental effort to realize them in semiconductor nanowire systems. While experimental efforts have produced preliminary evidence for the presence of Majorana zero modes in these systems, a thorough confirmation is lacking. The experimental signature in question is the presence of a zero-bias conductance-peak that, while necessary, is not a sufficient criterion to establish the presence of underlying Majorana modes. Given the importance of Majorana braiding for topological quantum computation and skepticism over the presence of Majorana modes in these experimental systems, it would seem natural to attempt braiding these putative Majorana modes in the near future. In that case, an observation of non-Abelian statistics would provide the necessary and sufficient condition in favor of Majorana presence in the studied experimental systems. This thesis has three distinct parts. First, we assume perfect Majorana modes as given that can be successfully braided. In this case, we calculate the diabatic error due to the finite speed of braiding when the system is coupled to a Bosonic bath. Next, we grant that the mechanism for zero-bias conductance-peak is indeed topological, albeit the underlying Majorana modes may be imperfect (the modes are not precisely at zero energy). We study the interplay of dissipation and finite energy splitting of the Majorana modes and study its consequence regarding the probability of successful braiding. Lastly, we propose studying the correlation between independent left and right conductance measurements as a means to distinguish between a topological versus a non-topological the mechanism underlying the observed zero-bias conductance-peak.
We study the decoherence dynamics of Majorana qubit braiding operations in a T-junction topological superconducting chain (TSC) system, in which the braiding is performed by controlling the electron-chemical potentials of the TSCs and the couplings between them. By solving rigorously the Majorana qubit dynamics, we show how the Majorana qubit coherence is generated through Bogoliubon correlations formed by exchanging Majorana zero modes (MZMs) between two TSCs in braiding operations. We also demonstrate with the exact master equation how MZMs and also the Bogoliubon correlations dissipate due to charge fluctuations of the controlling gates at both the zero and finite temperatures. As a result, Majorana qubit coherence and also the fermion parity conservation cannot be immune from local perturbations during braiding operations.
The braiding of two non-Abelian Majorana modes is important for realizing topological quantum computation. It can be achieved through tuning the coupling between the two Majorana modes to be exchanged and two ancillary Majorana modes. However, this coupling also makes the braiding subject to environment-induced decoherence. Here, we study the effects of decoherence on the diabatic errors in the braiding process for a set of time-dependent Hamiltonians with finite smoothness. To this end, we employ the master equation to calculate the diabatic excitation population for three kinds of decoherence processes. (1) Only pure dehasing: the scaling of the excitation population changed from ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}2k\ensuremath{-}2}$ to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ (kkk is the number of the Hamiltonian's time derivatives vanishing at the initial and final times) as the braiding duration TTT exceeds a certain value. (2) Only relaxation: the scaling transforms from ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}2k\ensuremath{-}2}$ to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ for k=0k=0k=0 and to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}a}$ (a>3a>3a>3) for k>0k>0k>0. (3) Pure dephasing and relaxation: the original scaling switches to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ first and then evolves to ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ in the adiabatic limit. Interestingly, the third scaling-varying style holds even when the expectation of pure dephasing rate is much smaller than that of the relaxation rate, which is attributed to the vanishing relaxation at the turning points of the braiding.