Introduction to Majorana fermions: part I

Fa Wang ( )
ICQM & School of Physics, Peking University

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References

Main references:
A.Y. Kitaev, Phys.Usp. 44, 131 (2001); arXiv:cond-mat/0010440
J.Alicea, Rep.Prog.Phys. 75, 076501 (2012); arXiv:1202.1293

Theoretical references:
C.Nayak et al., Rev.Mod.Phys. 80, 1083 (2008); arXiv:0707.1889
R.M. Lutchyn et al., Phys.Rev.Lett. 105, 077001 (2010).
Y.Oreg et al., Phys.Rev.Lett. 105, 177002 (2010).
J.Alicea et al., Nat.Phys. 7, 412 (2011); arXiv:1006.4395
K.T.Law et al., Phys.Rev.Lett. 103, 237001 (2009).
L.Jiang et al., Phys.Rev.Lett. 107, 236401 (2011).
L.Fu & C.L.Kane, Phys.Rev.Lett. 102, 216403 (2009).
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References

Experimental references:
V.Mourik et al., Science 336, 1003 (2012).
A.Das et al., Nat. Phys. 8, 887 (2012).
L.P.Rokhinson et al., Nat. Phys. 8, 795 (2012).

Reading materials:
F.Wilczek, Majorana returns, Nat.Phys. 5, 614 (2009).

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Trivia about Majorana (fermion)

About Ettore Majorana

Aug. 5, 1906: born in Catania, Sicily
March 1938: disappeared in Palermo, Sicily

About Majorana fermion

Ref.: E. Majorana, Nuovo Cimento 14, 171 (1937).
Real solutions of Dirac equation, are their own anti-particles.
Elementary particles: Neutrinos?
2D condensed matter systems: =5/2 FQHE state? Sr2RuO4? ...
1D condensed matter systems: semiconductor nanowire?
Evidence: V.Mourik et al., Science 336, 1003 (2012).
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1: Basics about Majorana fermion

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Basics of Majorana fermion: preview

Majorana fermions are real-valued fermion modes

real-valued: they are their own anti-particles:
in contrast to complex fermions:
e.g. electrons vs. positrons.

fermion: different Majoranas anti-commute.

Majorana fermions may obey non-Abelian statistics:
Ising anyons.
might be used for quantum computation.
c.f. Nayak RMP'08

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Defining Majorana fermion

Consider one fermion mode:

2d Hilbert space

spanned by unoccupied and occupied states:

Fermion creation/annihilation operators

Anti-commutation relation:

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Defining Majorana fermion

Majorana fermion operators from one fermion mode:

Real-valuedness:
Anti-commutation relation:

esp.

Fermion number:
Fermion number parity:

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Defining Majorana fermion

Two fermion modes:

4d Hilbert space: tensor product of two 2d Hilbert space.
Basis: tensor products of single fermion basis

Anti-commutation relation:

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Defining Majorana fermion

Two fermion modes:

(cont'd)

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Defining Majorana fermion

Majorana fermions from two fermion modes:

Real-valuedness:
Anti-commutation relation:
Fermion number:

Fermion number parity:

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Defining Majorana fermion

N fermion modes:

-dim'l Hilbert space:

basis:

2N Majorana fermions: c.f. Jordan-Wigner transformation

Fermions from Majoranas:

Fermion number parity:

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Properties of Majorana fermion

Real-valuedness:

Anti-commutation relation:
Majorana has no vacuum:

Basis change of Majorana fermions:

Real orthogonal transformation:
May/May not change fermion parity:
Includes particle-hole transformation of fermions:
example, two Majoranas from one fermion

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Properties of Majorana fermion

Non-locality: example

affects/depends on many sub-Hilbert spaces.

Products of odd # of Majoranas have similar property.

NOTE: Hamiltonian can only contain products of
even number of Majorana fermion operators. Examples:

NOTE: Hamiltonian preserves fermion parity:

NOTE: Hilbert space of 2N Majorana fermions divides into
even&odd fermion number sectors, each is of dimension
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Properties of Majorana fermion

Non-locality(cont'd):
Fermions have the similar property: Hamiltonian cannot contain
products of odd # of fermions operators.
However there is a non-trivial bosonic hermitian operator
(observable) from a single fermion mode:
NOTE: There is no non-trivial bosonic hermitian operator
from a single Majorana:
Non-trivial observables must contain two or more Majoranas
(information is stored non-locally).

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Properties of Majorana fermion

Non-Abelian statistics: c.f. Nayak et al. RMP'08

Abelian statistics: with certain # of fermions at fixed positions,
the Hilbert space is 1dim'l,
exchanges of fermion pairs just change the phase of
wavefunction. Different fermion pair exchanges commute.

Non-Abelian statistics: with 2N Majoranas at fixed positions,

the Hilbert space is -dim'l,
different Majorana pair exchange/braiding do not commute:
represented as non-commuting
matrices.
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Properties of Majorana fermion

Non-Abelian statistics(cont'd):
Braiding of Majorana fermion:
corresponding unitary transformation on Hilbert space
satisfies

Exercise: check
Non-Abelian statistics: exercise

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Summary #1

Basics of Majorana fermion:

Real-valuedness:
Equal weight superposition of particle and hole.
Anti-commutation relation (Clifford algebra):
Majorana has no vacuum:
Basis changes should be real orthogonal transformations.

has eigenvalues
b/c
Non-locality: information is stored in pairs of Majoranas.
Non-Abelian statistics.
Fermion number parity:

-dim'l Hilbert space divides into even&odd

subspaces, each is of dimension
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2: Model realization of Majorana fermion

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Model realization: the goal

To realize well-separated localized Majorana zero modes in a

system with bulk gap
Majorana zero modes:
, s do no appear in H.
Action of these Majoranas do not change energy.
2n Majorana zero modes: -fold degenerate ground states.
Majorana zero modes act non-trivially in this subspace.
Bulk gap: clear separation b/w ground & excited states.
Localized and well-separated:
local perturbations will not lift
the topologically protected
ground state degeneracy, b/c
it cannot involve more than
one Majorana mode.

Energy spectrum
bulk
excitations
bulk gap

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...

ground states

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Model realization: 1D p-wave superconductor

1D spinless fermion chain with p-wave pairing

Reference: Kitaev, Phys.Usp.'01.
t, , are real parameters. As an example, N is assumed even.
i=1

...

N-2

N-1

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Model realization: 1D p-wave superconductor

Rewrite the Hamiltonian in terms of Majoranas

a tight-binding model of Majorana fermions: exercise

...
i=1

i=2

i=3

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i=N

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Model realization: 1D p-wave superconductor

Special case #1: trivial phase

t==0, <0:
sum of N mutually commuting terms
Unique ground state: all
Bulk excitations of energy
one of

namely

:
namely

...
i=1

i=2

i=3

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i=N

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Model realization: 1D p-wave superconductor

Special case #2: non-trivial phase

t=>0, =0:
sum of N-1 mutually commuting terms
Ground states: all
Bulk excitations of energy : one of

...
i=1

i=2

i=3

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i=N

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Model realization: 1D p-wave superconductor

Special case #2: non-trivial phase (cont'd)

NOTE:

do no appear in H.

Majorana zero modes:

Two-fold degeneracy:
Action of

switches b/w the two degenerate states.

...
i=1

i=2

i=3

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i=N

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Model realization: 1D p-wave superconductor

Special case #2: non-trivial phase (cont'd)

Fermion # parity:
Explicit form of (un-normalized) ground states:
Use projectors

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Model realization: 1D p-wave superconductor

Less-special case #3: non-trivial phase

t>>0, =0: two Majorana chains with alternating hoppings.
The weak-strong-...-strong-weak chain have two zero energy
edge modes in N limit.

...
i=1

i=2

i=3

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i=N

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Model realization: 1D p-wave superconductor

Less-special case #3: non-trivial phase (cont'd)

To see

, rewrite H of upper chain as

Characteristic length
of pairing, when ||<<|t|.

coherent length

...
amplitude
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Model realization: 1D p-wave superconductor

Generic case: criterion for non-trivialness:

Ref.: Alicea,RepProgPhys'12
Rewrite H of periodic chain into Bogoliubov-de Gennes form.

under the mapping:

the image of Brillouin zone
0k<2 is a closed loop, winding around the origin
odd(non-trivial) or even(trivial) number of times.
k

Non-trivial: ||<|2t|
k

Trivial: ||>|2t|
k

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Model realization: braiding in 1D

Ref.: Alicea et al., Nat.Phys. 7, 412 (2011); arXiv:1006.4395

move Majorana fermions by gating
(tuning local )

trivial,
large

non-trivial,
small

1D spinless p-wave
superconductor
gates

Braiding/exchange in 1D without collision by sidetracks.

1

3
2

4
2

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Summary #2

Prototypical model of Majorana zero modes:

1D spinless fermion with p-wave pairing,
in the non-trivial topological superconductor phase.
Majorana zero modes localized on the ends
(boundaries between trivial & non-trivial regions).
Characteristic length ~ coherent length of pairing.

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3: Experimental realization and detection

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Experimental realization

Realization of 1D spinless fermion with p-wave pairing:

Semiconductor wire with spin-orbit coupling + Zeeman field +
proximity to s-wave superconductor: c.f. Oreg PRL'10

E
k

EF
+ spin-orbit coupling

+ Zeeman field

Experiments: V.Mourik et al., Science 336, 1003 (2012);

A.Das et al., Nat. Phys. 8, 887 (2012);
L.P.Rokhinson et al., Nat. Phys. 8, 795 (2012).

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Experimental realization

Realization of 1D spinless fermion with p-wave pairing:

Edge states of 2D topological insulator in proximity of s-wave
superconductor: c.f. Fu&Xu, Phys. Rev. B, 81, 134435 (2010)
bulk states

EF

non-trivial
region

trivial
region

E
k

bulk states

EF

2D realizations: c.f. Tutorial part 0&II.

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Experimental detection

Zero-bias tunneling conductance: c.f. KTLaw PRL'09

Perfect Andreev reflection,
conductance = 2e2/h.
Exp.: Mourik et al. Science'12;
Das et al. NatPhys'12

Fractional Josephson effect: c.f. Kitaev PhysUsp'01

Mourik et al.
Science'12

Josephson current vs. flux (phase difference) is

h/e-periodic instead of h/2e.
Exp.: Rokhinson et al. NatPhys'12

c.f. Alicea RepProgPhys'12

Interferometry: c.f. Fu PRL'09

For 2D realizations, c.f. Tutorial part 0&II
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The End.

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