A generic theory for Majorana zero modes in 2D superconductors
Abstract
It is well known that non-Abelian Majorana zero modes (MZM) harbor at vortex cores in a topological superconductor, which can be realized in a 2D spin-orbit coupled system with a single Fermi surface and by proximity coupling to an -wave superconductor. Here we show that existence of non-Abelian MZMs is unrelated to the bulk topology of a 2D superconductor, and propose that such exotic modes can be resulted in much broader range of superconductors, being topological or trivial. For a generic 2D system with multiple Fermi surfaces and gapped out by superconducting pairings, we show that at least a single MZM survives if there are only odd number of Fermi surfaces of which the corresponding superconducting orders have vortices, and such MZM is protected by an emergent Chern-Simons invariant, irrespective of the bulk topology of the superconductor. This result may enrich new experimental schemes for realizing non-Aelian MZMs. In particular, we propose a minimal scheme to realize the MZMs in a 2D superconducting Dirac semimetal with trivial bulk topology, which can be well achieved based on the recent cold atom experiments.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1703.03396,
title = {A generic theory for Majorana zero modes in 2D superconductors},
author = {Cheung Chan and Lin Zhang and Ting Fung Jeffrey Poon and Ying-Ping He and Yan-Qi Wang and Xiong-Jun Liu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.03396},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
5 pages, 3 figures, plus Supplementary Material