Heat transport in a superconducting quantum

chain: An exact solution

Oscar Martínez and A. M. S. Macêdo
Departamento de Física, UFPE
Introduction
• Random-matrix theory (RMT) has been widely used in the study of phase-coherent complex quantum systems and has been par-
ticularly successful in uncovering universal properties of quantum transport in chaotic and disordered systems due to the strong
correspondence between the statistical properties of random-matrix ensembles and the fluctuations of measured observables.
• Random-matrix ensembles are sensitive to certain intrinsic symmetries of the system, such as time reversal (TR), spin rotation
(SR), electron-hole (e-h) and chiral (Ch). These symmetries lead to a classification of RMT ensembles into ten universal classes
(the ten-fold way), which are divided into three categories: (i) Wigner Dyson (three classes) (ii) Chiral (three classes) and (iii)
Bogoliubov-de Gennes (four classes)
• In superconducting systems, quantum transport has very striking and different features, which in part is due to Andreev
reflections. The most remarkable phenomenon is probably the possibility of a condensed matter realization of Majorana fermions.

Theoretical framework
The calculations were guided by a recent classification scheme of RMT Brownian-motion ensembles and was performed by means of
a multivariate integral transform method
 
rN1 ×N1 tN1 ×N2 † PN
• The scattering problem: S = 0 0 , where [tt ] has (τ1 , ..., τN ) transmission eigenvalues and G = G0 d i τi .
tN2 ×N1 rN2 ×N2 ,
Q βQ β(µ+1)/2−1 γ/2
• RMT for a Andreev quantum dot: P ({τ }) = CN i<j |τi − τj | τ
i i (1 − τ i ) being µ = |N1 − N2 |.
∂P
PN ∂ ∂ P
Q β QN α 2
• RMT for a quantum wire: ∂s = i ∂qi J ∂qi J ; J = i<j | cosh(2qi ) − cosh(2qj )| i sinh (2qi ) and τi = sech (qi ).
QN β QN
• Matrix valued Brownian motion classification scheme: Jβ ({x}) = i<j |xi − xj | and ωN ({x}) = i ω(xi ).
(0) ∂P
PN ∂ ∂ P
• Quantum dot and quantum wire in the scheme: P ({x}) = CN Jβ ({x})ωN ({x}); ∂s = i ∂xi s(xi )ωN Jβ ∂x i ωN Jβ
.
R N QN xi +ϑ0
• Integral transform: W ({ϑ}, s) = d xΩβ ({x}, {ϑ})P ({x}, s). Kernel: Ωβ ({x}, {ϑ}) = i xi +ϑ1 .
   
∂ † † 1
P 1 1+i ∂ ∂ ω(ϑ0 ) 1
• Image space for β = 2: ∂s − Mϑ W ({ϑ}, s) = 0; Mϑ = V B i=0 (−1) ∂ϑ1
s(ϑ 1 )V B ∂ϑ1
; V = ω(ϑ1 )
; B = (ϑ0 −ϑ1 )2
.

Results for TR symmetry System

Solution for the quantum dot:
PN −1 (1−ϑ0 )l
W ({ϑ}, 0) = (ϑ0 − ϑ1 ) l=0 (1−ϑ )l+1 (fN −l−1 (ϑ0 )gN −l−1 (ϑ1 ) − 1) where
1
γ 1−ϑ0 γ 1−ϑ1
fn (ϑ0 ) = F [−n, −n−µ; −2n−µ− 2 ; 2 ]; gn (ϑ1 ) = F [n+1, n+1+µ; 2n+µ+ 2 +2; 2 ]

Solution for the quantum wire:

PN −1 Pn(ν) (ϑ0 )Pn(ν) (1) R ∞ (ν) (ν) (−ν) −εnk s
W ({ϑ}, s) = 2(ϑ0 − ϑ1 ) n=0 (ν) 0
dµnk cnk (N1 )cnk (N2 )Fk (ϑ1 )e ; By varying the sample’s length L, we can
hn
|Γ(1/2−ν+ik)|2 (ν) |Γ(N +ν+1/2+ik)|2 go from a quantum dot to a chain of dots,
dµnk = dk |Γ(ik)|2 ε ; cnk N ) = (N −n−1)!Γ(N +n+2ν+1) ;
(ν)
nk
1−ϑ1
which in the continuous thick wire limit
1 1
 
Fk (ϑ1 ) = F ν + 2 + ik, ν + 2 − ik; ν + 1; 2 . is a quantum wire.
(ν)
m PN −1 (Pn (1))2 R∞ (m) (ν) (ν) −εnk s
Moments:hg i = 4 n=0 (ν) 0
dµnk gnk cnk (N1 )cnk (N2 )e ,
hn
Conclusions
• We obtained an exact description of
the crossover in thermal conduction be-
tween a superconducting chaotic ballis-
tic cavity (a quantum dot) and a dis-
ordered multichannel superconducting
quantum wire with TR symmetry.
• For a single channel topological super-
conductor, we can interpret the total
suppression of the insulating regime in
systems with broken spin-rotation in-
variance as a signature of the pres-
ence of a condensed matter Majorana
fermion.

References
[1] A. M. S. Macêdo. Quantum dot to disordered wire
crossover: A complete solution in all length scales
for systems with unitary symmetry. Physical Re-
view B, 61(7):4453, 2000.

[2] A. F. Macedo-Junior and A. Macêdo. Brownian-

Figure 1: First three cumulants of the thermal conductance for N1 = N2 = 1 and motion ensembles of random matrix theory: A clas-
sification scheme and an integral transform method.
functions of the Brownian motion classification scheme for superconducting systems. Nuclear Physics B, 752(3):439–475, 2006.