Journal of Contemporary Physics (Armenian Academy of Sciences)
Simple Extension of Kitaev Chain for $${{\mathcal{Z}}_{3}}$$ Parafermions
Tigran Hakobyan, Raffi Varosyan, G. Harutunyan
Abstract
A simple quantum chain with a topological phase is constructed. It is formed by parafermions (quasiparticles obeying the fractional statistics) with angular parameter $$\theta = {{2\pi } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{2\pi } 3}} \right. \kern-0em} 3}$$ . The model is derived from the one-dimensional spin model with topological order protected by the $${{\mathcal{Z}}_{3}} \times {{\mathcal{Z}}_{3}}~$$ symmetry (generalized cluster model). Parafermionic zero modes arising at the chain boundaries, which remain stable because of the vacuum gap and topological order, are constructed and studied.