Fractional and Majorana Fermions: The Physics of Zero Energy Modes
R. Jackiw
备注:
11 pages, 12 figures, talks given at the Nobel Symposium, Stockholm, Sweden, May 2010 and Semat Lecture, CCNY, New York, NY, April 2011; uses float.sty
We study free fermionic models that host Majorana zero modes using the Majorana orthogonal transformation, which is a type of transformation between different fermionic models under Majorana representation of complex fermions. Using Majorana orthogonal transformation, a U(1) topological gauge theory for the doubled $p_{x}+ip_{y}$ topological superconductor is obtained; the vortex Majorana zero modes and the degeneracy splitting of multiple vortices are studied using field theoretical method. For lattice Majorana hopping models, we perform real-space analysis on the Majorana zero modes. In one …
We propose the concept of birefringent Majorana fermions as collective excitations of quantum interacting many-body states motivated by the already known quasiparticles including Dirac fermions, birefringent Dirac fermions and Majorana fermions. Low energy effective models are constructed to understand the basic mathematical structures of equations of motion and physical properties. We find that the equation of motion, with two different "speed of light", describing birefringent Majorana fermions in condensed matter physics is the birefringence version of the original Majorana equation of real…
We discuss a scheme for performing Jordan-Wigner transformation for various lattice fermion systems in two and three dimensions which keeps internal and spatial symmetries manifest. The correspondence between fermionic and bosonic operators is established with the help of auxiliary Majorana fermions. The current construction is applicable to general lattices with even coordination number and an arbitrary number of fermion flavors. The approach is demonstrated on the single-orbital square, triangular and cubic lattices for spin-1/2 fermions. We also discuss the relation to some quantum spin liq…
We consider an interface separating the Moore-Read state and Halperin 331 state in a half filled Landau level, which can be realized in a double quantum well system with varying inter-well tunneling and/or interaction strength. We find in the presence of electron tunneling and strong Coulomb interaction across the interface, all charge modes localize and the only propagating mode left is a chiral Majorana fermion mode. Methods to probe this neutral mode are proposed. Quantum phase transition between the Moore-Read and Halperin 331 states is described by a network of such Majorana fermion modes…
The Kitaev chain model exhibits topological order that manifests as topological degeneracy, Majorana edge modes and $Z_{2}$ topological invariance of the abulk spectrum. This model can be obtained from a transverse field Ising model(TFIM) using the Jordan-Wigner transformation. TFIM has neither topological degeneracy nor any edge modes. Topological degeneracy associated with topological order is central to topological quantum computation. In this paper we will explore topological protection of the ground state manifold in the case of Majorana fermion models which exhibit $Z_{2}$ topological or…
We study a quantum spin Kitaev model with zigzag edges to clarify the effects of anisotropy in the exchange couplings on the spin propagation. We simulate the spin and Majorana dynamics triggered by a magnetic pulse, using the real-space time-dependent Majorana mean-field theory. When the anisotropy is small, the dispersion of the itinerant Majorana fermions remains gapless, where the velocity of the spin propagation matches the group velocity of the itinerant Majorana fermions at the nodal points. On the other hand, in the gapped system with a large anisotropy, the spin propagation is strongl…
The sign problem is a major obstacle in quantum Monte Carlo simulations for many-body fermion systems. We examine this problem with a new perspective based on the Majorana reflection positivity and Majorana Kramers positivity. Two sufficient conditions are proven for the absence of the fermion sign problem. Our proof provides a unified description for all the interacting lattice fermion models previously known to be free of the sign problem based on the auxiliary field quantum Monte Carlo method. It also allows us to identify a number of new sign-problem-free interacting fermion models includi…
Majorana fermions are the real (in a mathematical sense) counterparts of complex fermions like ordinary electrons. The promise of topological quantum computing has lead to substantial experimental progress in realizing these particles in various synthetic platforms. The realization of Majorana fermions motivates a fundamental question: What phases of matter can emerge if many Majorana fermions are allowed to interact? Here we review recent progress in this direction on the proposed experimental setups, analytical and numerical results on low-dimensional lattice models, and the exactly solvable…
We study the low-energy physics of a chain of Majorana fermions in the presence of interaction and disorder, emphasizing the difference between Majoranas and conventional (complex) fermions. While in the non-interacting limit both models are equivalent (in particular, belong to the same symmetry class BDI and flow towards the same infinite-randomness critical fixed point), their behavior differs drastically once interaction is added. Our density-matrix renormalization group calculations show that the complex-fermion chain remains at the non-interacting fixed point. On the other hand, the Major…