We propose a novel realization for a topologically superconducting phase hosting Majorana zero-modes on the basis of quantum spin Hall systems. Remarkably, our proposal is completely free of ferromagnets. Instead, we confine helical edge states around a narrow defect line of finite length in a two-dimensional topological insulator. We demonstrate the formation of a new topological regime, hosting protected Majorana modes in the presence of s-wave superconductivity and Zeeman coupling. Interestingly, when the system is weakly tunnel-coupled to helical edge state reservoirs, a particular transport signature is associated with the presence of a non-Abelian Majorana zero-mode.
Coupling superconductors to quantum Hall edge states is the subject of intense investigation as part of the ongoing search for non-abelian excitations. Our group has previously observed supercurrents of hundreds of picoamperes in graphene Josephson junctions in the quantum Hall regime. One of the explanations of this phenomenon involves the coupling of an electron edge state on one side of the junction to a hole edge state on the opposite side. In our previous samples, these states are separated by several microns. Here, a narrow trench perpendicular to the contacts creates counterpropagating …
We report systematic quantum Hall transport experiments on Fabry-Perot electron interferometers at ultra-low-temperatures. The GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure devices consist of two constrictions defined by etch trenches in 2D electron layer, enclosing an approximately circular island. Front gates deposited in etch trenches allow to fine-tune the device for symmetry and to change the constriction filling, relative to the bulk. The low-field longitudinal and Hall magnetotransport shows Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and integer quantum Hall plateaus. A systematic variation of front-gate voltage aff…
We study the quantum anomalous thermal Hall effect in a topological superconductor which possesses an integer bulk topological number, and supports Majorana excitations on the surface. To realize the quantum thermal Hall effect, a finite gap at the surface is induced by applying an external magnetic field or by the proximity effects with magnetic materials or $s$-wave superconductors with complex pair-potentials. Basing on the lattice model Hamiltonian for superconducting states in Cu-doped Bi$_2$Se$_3$, we compute the thermal Hall conductivity as a function of various parameters such as the c…
We investigate the interplay between ferromagnetic and superconducting order at the edge of a quantum spin Hall insulator. Using complementary analytical and self-consistent numerical approaches, we study a ferromagnetic Josephson junction and show how the direct coupling between magnetism and the superconducting U(1) phase gives rise to several unusual phenomena which distinguishes the present system from its non-topological equivalent. In particular, we demonstrate how the anomalous current-phase relation triggers supercurrent-induced magnetization dynamics and also study the spatial localiz…
Majorana quasiparticles localized in vortex cores of a chiral p-wave superconductor hybridize with one another to form bands in a vortex lattice. We begin by solving a fully microscopic theory describing all quasiparticle bands in a chiral p-wave superconductor in magnetic field, then use this solution to build localized Wannier wavefunctions corresponding to Majorana quasiparticles. A low-energy tight-binding theory describing the intervortex hopping of these is then derived, and its topological properties---which depend crucially on the signs of the imaginary intervortex hopping parameters--…
We show how a quantum dot with a ballistic single-channel point contact to a superconductor can be created by means of a gate electrode at the edge of a quantum spin Hall insulator (such as an InAs/GaSb quantum well). A weak perpendicular magnetic field traps a Majorana zero-mode, so that it can be observed in the gate-voltage-averaged differential conductance <dI/dV> as a 4e^2/h zero-bias peak above a (2/3π^2 - 4)e^2/h background. The one-dimensional edge does not permit the braiding of pairs of Majorana fermions, but this obstacle can be overcome by coupling opposite edges at a constriction,…
A two-dimensional time-reversal symmetric topological superconductor is a fully gapped system possessing a helical Majorana mode on the edges. This helical Majorana edge mode (HMEM), which is a Kramer's pair of two chiral Majorana edge modes in the opposite propagating directions, is robust under time-reversal symmetry protection. We propose a feasible setup and accessible measurement to provide the preliminary step of the HMEM realization by studying superconducting antiferromagnetic quantum spin Hall insulators. Since this antiferromagnetic topological insulator hosts a helical electron edge…
We study the conductance afforded by a normal-metal probe which is directly contacting the helical edge modes of a quantum spin Hall insulator (QSHI). We show a $2e^2/h$ conductance peak at zero temperature in QSHI-based superconductor--ferromagnet hybrids due to the formation of a single Majorana bound state (MBS). In a corresponding Josephson junction hosting a pair of MBSs, a $4e^2/h$ conductance peak is found at zero temperature. The conductance quantization is robust to changes of the relevant system parameters and, remarkably, remains unaltered with increasing the distance between probe …
It is difficult to unambiguously confirm the existence of Majorana zero modes (MZMs) due to the absence of smoking-gun signatures in charge transport measurements. Recent studies suggest that the spin degree of freedom of MZMs may provide an alternative detection method. We study the spin properties of the superconducting state in Majorana nanowires and the associated unconventional Josephson effect with realistic experimental parameters taken from [Zhang {\it et al.}, Nature 556, 74 (2018)]. For a superconducting thin film with in-plane polarized spin-triplet pairing, an out-of-plane electric…
We study a realization of a 1d chain of Majorana bound states at the interfaces between alternating ferromagnetic and superconducting regions at a quantum spin Hall insulator edge. In the limit of well separated Majoranas, the system can be mapped to the transverse field Ising model. The disordered critical point can be reached by tuning the relative magnitude or phases of the ferromagnetic and superconducting order parameters. We compute the voltage dependence of the tunneling current from a metallic tip into the Majorana chain as a direct probe of the random critical state.
Confinement at the helical edge of a topological insulator is possible in the presence of proximity-induced magnetic (F) or superconducting (S) order. The interplay of both phenomena leads to the formation of localized Majorana bound states (MBS) or likewise (under certain resonance conditions) the formation of ordinary Andreev bound states (ABS). We investigate the properties of bound states in junctions composed of alternating regions of F or S barriers. Interestingly, the direction of magnetization in F regions and the relative superconducting phase between S regions can be exploited to hyb…
We show that quasi-one-dimensional (1D) quantum wires can be written onto the surface of magnetic topological insulator (MTI) thin films by gate arrays. When the MTI is in a quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) state, MTI$/$superconductor quantum wires have especially broad stability regions for both topological and non-topological states, facilitating creation and manipulation of Majorana particles on the MTI surface.
In this work, we demonstrate that making a cut (a narrow vacuum regime) in the bulk of a quantum anomalous Hall insulator (QAHI) creates a topologically protected single helical channel with counter-propagating electron modes, and inducing superconductivity on the helical channel through proximity effect will create Majorana zero energy modes (MZMs) at the ends of the cut. In this geometry, there is no need for the proximity gap to overcome the bulk insulating gap of the QAHI to create MZMs as in the two-dimensional QAHI/superconductor (QAHI/SC) heterostructures. Therefore, the topological reg…
We investigate hybrid structures based on a bilayer quantum spin Hall system in proximity to an s-wave superconductor as a platform to mimic time-reversal symmetric topological superconductors. In this bilayer setup, the induced pairing can be of intra- or inter-layer type, and domain walls of those different types of pairing potentials host Kramers partners (time-reversal conjugate pairs) of Majorana bound states. Interestingly, we discover that such topological interfaces providing Majorana bound states can also be achieved in an otherwise homogeneous system by a spatially dependent inter-la…
Higher-order topological superconductors and superfluids host lower-dimensional Majorana corner and hinge states since novel topology exhibitions on boundaries. While such topological nontrivial phases have been explored extensively, more possible schemes are necessary for engineering Majorana states. In this paper we propose Majorana corner states could be realized in a two-dimensional attractive quantum spin-Hall insulator with opposite in-plane Zeeman energy at two sublattice sites. The appropriate Zeeman field leads to the opposite Dirac mass for adjacent edges of a square sample, and natu…
We investigate the spectral and transport properties of a double quantum dot laterally attached to a topological superconducting nanowire, hosting the Majorana zero-energy modes. Specifically, we consider a geometry, in which the outer quantum dot is embedded between the external normal and superconducting leads, forming a circuit. First, we derive analytical expressions for the bound states in the case of an uncorrelated system and discuss their signatures in the tunneling spectroscopy. Then, we explore the case of strongly correlated quantum dots by performing the numerical renormalization g…
We propose a general recipe for chiral topological superconductor (TSC) in two dimensions with multiple $N$ chiral Majorana fermion modes from a quantied anomalous Hall insulator in proximity to an s-wave superconductor with nontrivial band topology. A concrete example is that a $N=3$ chiral TSC may be realized by coupling a magnetic topological insulator and the ion-based superconductor such as FeTe$_{1-x}$Se$_{x}$ ($x=0.45$). We further propose the electrical and thermal transport experiments to detect the Majorana nature of three chiral edge fermions. A unique signature is that the two-term…
We calculate density and current spatial distributions of a 2D model junction between a normal QAH contact and a superconducting QAH region hosting propagating (chiral) Majorana modes. We use a simplified Hamiltonian describing the spatial coupling of the modes on each side of the junction, as well as the related junction conductance. We study how this coupling is affected by orbital effects caused by an external magnetic field.
Commencing with the composite fermion description of the $ν=5/2$ fractional quantum Hall effect, we study the dynamics of the edge neutral Majorana fermions. We confirm that these neutral modes are chiral and show that a conventional p-wave pairing interaction between CFs does not contribute to the dynamics of the edge neutral fermions. We find an important bilinear coupling between the charged and neutral modes. We show that owing to this coupling, the dispersion of the neutral modes is linear and their velocities are proportional to the wave vector of the charged mode. This dynamic origin of…
We predict conductance oscillations in a quantum-anomalous Hall 2d strip having a superconducting region of length $L_x$ with a chiral Majorana mode. These oscillations require a finite transverse extension of the strip $L_y$ of a few microns or less. Measuring the conductance periodicity with $L_x$ and a fixed bias, or with bias and a fixed $L_x$, yields the speed of the chiral Majorana mode. The physical mechanism behind the oscillations is the interference between backscattered chiral modes from second to first interface of the NSN double junction. The interferometer effect is enhanced by t…
Quantum anomalous Hall insulator (QAH)/$s$-wave superconductor (SC) hybrid systems are known to be an ideal platform for realizing two-dimensional topological superconductors with chiral Majorana edge modes. In this paper we study QAH/unconventional SC hybrid systems whose pairing symmetry is $p$-wave, $d$-wave, chiral $p$-wave, or chiral $d$-wave. The hybrid systems are a generalization of the QAH/$s$-wave SC hybrid system. In view of symmetries of the QAH and pairings, we introduce three topological numbers to classify topological phases of the hybrid systems. One is the Chern number that ch…
We present a detailed theoretical study of chiral topological superconductor phases in proximity-superconducting graphene systems based on an effective model inspired by DFT simulations. Inducing s-wave superconductivity to quantum anomalous Hall effect systems leads to chiral topological superconductors. For out-of-plane magnetization we find topological superconducting phases with even numbers of chiral Majorana fermions per edge which is correlated to the opening of a nontrivial gap in the bulk system in the $\mathrm{ K}$-points and their connection under particle-hole symmetry. We show tha…
Chiral Majorana edge modes are theoretically proposed to perform braiding operations for the potential quantum computation. Here, we suggest a scheme to regulate trajectories of the chiral Majorana fermion based on a quantum anomalous Hall insulator (QAHI)-topological superconductor heterostructure. An applied external gate voltage to the QAHI region introduces a dynamical phase so that the outgoing Majorana fermions can be prominently tuned to different leads. The trajectory is mechanically analyzed and the electrical manipulation is represented by the oscillating transmission coefficients ve…
After the recognition of the possibility to implement Majorana fermions using the building blocks of solid-state matters, the detection of this peculiar particle has been an intense focus of research. Here we experimentally demonstrate a collection of Majorana fermions living in a one-dimensional transport channel at the boundary of a superconducting quantum anomalous Hall insulator thin film. A series of topological phase changes are controlled by the reversal of the magnetization, where a half-integer quantized conductance plateau (0.5e2/h) is observed as a clear signature of the Majorana ph…
The chiral topological superconductor in two dimensions has a full pairing gap in the bulk and a single chiral Majorana state at the edge. The vortex of the chiral superconducting state carries a Majorana zero mode which is responsible for the non-abelian statistics of the vortices. Despite intensive searches, this novel superconducting state has not yet been identified in nature. In this paper, we consider a quantum Hall or a quantum anomalous Hall state near the plateau transition, and in proximity to a fully gapped s-wave superconductor. We show that this hybrid system realizes the long sou…
Motivated by recent experiments demonstrating intricate quantum Hall physics on the surface of elemental bismuth, we consider proximity coupling an $s$-wave superconductor to a two-dimensional electron gas with strong Rashba spin-orbit interactions in the presence of a strong perpendicular magnetic field. We focus on the high-field limit so that the superconductivity can be treated as a perturbation to the low-lying Landau levels. In the clean case, wherein the superconducting order parameter takes the form of an Abrikosov vortex lattice, we show that a lattice of hybridized Majorana modes eme…
A hybrid setup consisting of a superconductivity-proximitized quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator and a quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator is proposed for chiral injection of electrons into the Majorana bound state (MBS). An unexplored region of the phase space involving the exchange field induced boost of the helical edge state is then proposed for the detection of the MBS. 2-D transport simulations of our proposed setup is compared with the corresponding setup in the absence of the QAH region, when moderate disorder and a small but finite bulk out-of-plane magnetic field and a Rashba field…
Can Majorana zero modes in quantum Hall edges survive edge reconstruction?
Aix Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, CNRS, CPT（艾克斯马赛大学，土伦大学，法国国家科学研究中心，理论物理中心）；Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata（印度科学与教育研究所加尔各答分校物理系）；International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research（塔塔基础研究所国际理论科学中心）
We study the non-abelian statistics characterizing systems where counter-propagating gapless modes on the edges of fractional quantum Hall states are gapped by proximity-coupling to superconductors and ferromagnets. The most transparent example is that of a fractional quantum spin Hall state, in which electrons of one spin direction occupy a fractional quantum Hall state of $ν= 1/m$, while electrons of the opposite spin occupy a similar state with $ν= -1/m$. However, we also propose other examples of such systems, which are easier to realize experimentally. We find that each interface between …
We study self-consistently a microscopic interface between a quantum spin Hall insulator (QSHI) and a superconductor (SC), focusing on properties related to Majorana fermion creation. For an $s$-wave SC we show that odd-in-momentum, or $p$-wave, order parameters exist for all doping levels of the QSHI and that they can be related to different spinless Cooper pair amplitudes. Despite this, the induced superconducting gap in the QSHI always retains its $s$-wave character, validating the commonly used effective model for superconductivity in a topological insulator. For a $d_{xy}$-wave SC, we sho…
We study the quantum Andreev oscillation induced by interference of the edge chiral Majorana fermions in junctions made of quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators and superconductors (SCs). We show two chiral Majorana fermions on a QAH edge with SC proximity generically have a momentum difference $Δk$, which depends on the chemical potentials of both the QAH insulator and the SC. Due to the spatial interference induced by $Δk$, the longitudinal conductance of QAH-SC junctions oscillates with respect to the edge lengths and the chemical potentials, which can be probed via charge transport. Furt…
We propose an interferometer for chiral Majorana modes where the interference effect is caused and controlled by a Josephson junction of proximity-induced topological superconductors, hence, a Majorana-Josephson interferometer. This interferometer is based on a two-terminal quantum anomalous Hall bar, and as such its transport observables exhibit interference patterns depending on both the Josephson phase and the junction length. Observing these interference patterns will establish quantum coherent Majorana transport and further provide a powerful characterization tool for the relevant system.
Superconductivity and the quantum Hall effect are considered to be two cornerstones of condensed matter physics. The realization of hybrid structures where these two effects coexist has recently become an active field of research. In this work, we study a Josephson junction where a central region in the quantum Hall regime is proximitized with superconductors that can be driven to a topological phase with an external Zeeman field. In this regime, the Majorana modes that emerge at the ends of each superconducting lead couple to the chiral quantum Hall edge states. This produces distinguishable …
We show that the $ν=8$ integer quantum Hall state can support Majorana zero modes at domain walls between its two different stable chiral edge phases without superconductivity. This is due to the existence of an edge phase that does not support gapless fermionic excitations; all gapless excitations are bosonic in this edge phase. Majorana fermion zero modes occur at a domain wall between this edge phase and the more conventional one that does support gapless fermions. Remarkably, due to the chirality of the system, the topological degeneracy of these zero modes has exponential protection, as a…
In this work, we investigate the conductance and current correlations properties of a quantum topological inteferometer consisting of a QD coupled to two Majorana Bound States (MBSs) confined at both ends of a 1D topological superconductor ring nanowire. We analyze the ring in its topological non trivial and trivial phases to show that the tunneling conductance, shot noise and fano factor present unique characteristics to distinguish the hallmark of MBSs. We reinforce our findings by taking advantage of the correspondence between the quantum topological interferometer and a dot effectively cou…
We construct a minimal circuit, based on the top-transmon design, to rotate a qubit formed out of four Majorana zero-modes at the edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator. Unlike braiding operations, generic rotations have no topological protection, but they do allow for a full characterization of the coherence times of the Majorana qubit. The rotation is controlled by variation of the flux through a pair of split Josephson junctions in a Cooper pair box, without any need to adjust gate voltages. The Rabi oscillations of the Majorana qubit can be monitored via oscillations in the resona…
In a recent experiment, half-quantized longitudinal conductance plateaus (HQCPs) of height $\frac{e^2}{2h}$ have been observed in quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator/superconductor heterostructure transport measurements. It was predicted that these HQCPs are signatures of chiral Majorana edge states. The HQCPs are supposed to appear in the regimes where the Hall conductance $σ_{xy}$ is quantized. However, experimentally, a pair of the HQCPs appear when the Hall conductance $σ_{xy}$ is only 80% of the quantized value when dissipative channels appear in the bulk. The dissipative channels in t…
We discuss thermal transport of two-dimensional topological superconductors (TSCs) with broken time reversal symmetry, which are described by Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) Hamiltonians. From the calculations of bulk quantities only, without refereeing to Majorana edge states, we show that the thermal Hall conductivity of two-dimensional TSCs in the low-temperature limit is quantized in multiples of $1/2\frac{πT}{6}$, which is exactly one half of the value of quantization in the case of the integer quantum Hall effect, and that this exact half-quantization is caused by the structure of the Nambu s…
Majorana states in condensed matter devices may be of a localized nature, such as in hybrid semiconductor/superconductor nanowires, or chirally propagating along the edges such as in hybrid 2D quantum-anomalous-Hall/superconductor structures. We calculate the circular dichroism due to chiral Majorana states in a hybrid structure made of a quantum-anomalous-Hall-insulator and a superconductor. The optical absorption of chiral Majoranas is characterized by equally spaced absorption peaks of both positive and negative dichroism. In the limit of a very long structure (a 2D ribbon) peaks of a singl…
As platforms of Majorana modes, topological insulator (quantum anomalous Hall insulator)/superconductor (SC) heterostructures have attracted tremendous attention over the past decade. Here we substitute the topological insulator by its higher-order counterparts. Concretely, we consider second-order topological insulators (SOTIs) without time-reversal symmetry and investigate SOTI/SC heterostructures in both two and three dimensions. Remarkably, we find that such novel heterostructures provide natural realizations of second-order topological superconductors (SOTSCs) which host Majorana corner m…
Starting from the edge reconstructed Pfaffian state and the anti-Pfaffian state for the filling fraction $ν={5/2}$ fractional quantum Hall (FQH) state with the filled Landau levels included, we find that interactions between counterpropagating edge modes can induce phase transitions on the edge. In the new `Majorana-gapped' phases, a pair of counter propagating neutral Majorana modes becomes gapped. The quasiparticle tunneling exponent changes from $g=1/4$ to $g=1/2$ for the edge reconstructed Pfaffian state, and changes from $g=1/2$ to $g=0.55-0.75$ for the anti-Pfaffian state, in the new Maj…
We propose a setup that integrates a quantum point contact (QPC) and a Josephson junction on a quantum spin Hall sample, experimentally realizable in InAs/GaSb quantum wells. The confinement due to both the QPC and the superconductor results in a Kramers pair of Majorana zero-energy bound states when the superconducting phases in the two arms differ by an odd multiple of $π$ across the Josephson junction. We investigate the detection of these Majorana pairs with the integrated QPC, and find a robust switching from normal to Andreev scattering across the edges due to the presence of Majorana Kr…
Josephson junctions based on three-dimensional topological insulators offer intriguing possibilities to realize unconventional $p$-wave pairing and Majorana modes. Here, we provide a detailed study of the effect of a uniform magnetization in the normal region: We show how the interplay between the spin-momentum locking of the topological insulator and an in-plane magnetization parallel to the direction of phase bias leads to an asymmetry of the Andreev spectrum with respect to transverse momenta. If sufficiently large, this asymmetry induces a transition from a regime of gapless, counterpropag…
Second-order topological superconductors host Majorana corner and hingemodes in contrast to conventional edge and surface modes in two and three dimensions. However, the realization of such second-order corner modes usually demands unconventional superconducting pairing or complicated junctions or layered structures. Here we show that Majorana corner modes could be realized using a 2D quantum spin Hall insulator in proximity contact with an $s$-wave superconductor and subject to an in-plane Zeeman field. Beyond a critical value, the in-plane Zeeman field induces opposite effective Dirac masses…
Quantum spin Hall-superconductor hybrids are promising sources of topological superconductivity and Majorana modes, particularly given recent progress on HgTe and InAs/GaSb. We propose a new method of revealing topological superconductivity in extended quantum spin Hall Josephson junctions supporting `fractional Josephson currents'. Specifically, we show that as one threads magnetic flux between the superconductors, the critical current traces an interference pattern featuring sharp fingerprints of topological superconductivity---even when noise spoils parity conservation.
Non-Majorana-origin of the half-integer conductance quantization elucidated by multi-terminal superconductor-quantum anomalous Hall insulator heterostructure
We analyze the Andreev spectrum in a four-terminal Josephson junction between one-dimensional topological superconductors in class D. We find that a topologically protected crossing in the space of three superconducting phase differences can occur between the two lowest Andreev bound states. This crossing can be detected through the transconductance quantization, in units of $2e^2/h$, between two voltage-biased terminals. Our prediction provides yet another example of topology in multi-terminal Josephson junctions. We discuss possible realizations of such junctions with semiconducting crossed …
Critical Majorana fermion at a topological quantum Hall bilayer transition
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds（利兹大学物理与天文学学院）；Institute of Natural Sciences, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study（西湖高等研究院自然科学研究院）；Department of Physics, School of Science, Westlake University（西湖大学理学院物理系）；Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institute（西蒙斯平坦研究所计算量子物理中心）；Department of Physics, Princeton University（普林斯顿大学物理系）；Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole normale supérieure, ENS, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité（巴黎高等师范学校物理实验室，ENS，PSL大学，法国国家科学研究中心，索邦大学，巴黎第七大学，索邦巴黎城）
In the space of less than one decade, the search for Majorana quasiparticles in condensed matter has become one of the hottest topics in physics. The aim of this review is to provide a brief perspective of where we are with strong focus on artificial implementations of one-dimensional topological superconductivity. After a self-contained introduction and some technical parts, an overview of the current experimental status is given and some of the most successful experiments of the last few years are discussed in detail. These include the novel generation of ballistic InSb nanowire devices, epi…
It has been proposed that band-inverted electron-hole bilayers support a phase transition from an insulating phase with spontaneously broken time-reversal symmetry to a quantum spin Hall insulator phase as a function of increasing electron and hole densities. Here, we show that in the presence of proximity-induced superconductivity it is possible to realize Majorana zero modes in the time-reversal symmetry broken phase in the absence of magnetic field. We develop an effective low-energy theory for the system in the presence of time-reversal symmetry breaking order parameter to obtain analytica…
Two classes of topological superconductors and Majorana modes in condensed matter systems are known to date: one, in which impurity disorder strongly suppresses topological superconducting gap and is detrimental to Majorana modes, and the other, where Majorana fermions are protected by disorder-robust superconductor gap. In this work we predict a third class of topological superconductivity and Majorana modes, in which they appear exclusively in the presence of impurity disorder. Observation and control of Majorana fermions and other non-Abelions often requires a symmetry leading to a gap in a…
Using exact diagonalization in the spherical geometry, we investigate systems of localized quasiholes at nu=5/2 for interactions interpolating between the pure Coulomb and the three-body interaction for which the Moore-Read state is the exact ground state. We show that the charge e/4 quasihole can be easily localized by means of a delta-function pinning potential. Using a tuned smooth pinning potential, the quasihole radius can be limited to approximately three magnetic length units. For systems of two quasiholes, adiabatic continuity between the Moore-Read and the Coulomb limit holds for the …
A quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator coupled to an s-wave superconductor is predicted to harbor a topological superconducting phase, the elementary excitations of which (i.e. Majorana fermions) can form topological qubits upon non-Abelian braiding operations. A recent transport experiment interprets the half-quantized two-terminal conductance plateau as the presence of chiral Majorana fermions in a millimeter-size QAH-Nb hybrid structure. However, there are concerns about this interpretation because non-Majorana mechanisms can also generate similar signatures, especially in a disordered QA…
