English

Kaleidoscope of topological phases with multiple Majorana species

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2011-09-28 v3

Abstract

Exactly solvable lattice models for spins and non-interacting fermions provide fascinating examples of topological phases, some of them exhibiting the localized Majorana fermions that feature in proposals for topological quantum computing. The Chern invariant ν\nu is one important characterization of such phases. Here we look at the square-octagon variant of Kitaev's honeycomb model. It maps to spinful paired fermions and enjoys a rich phase diagram featuring distinct abelian and nonabelian phases with ν=0,±1,±2,±3\nu= 0,\pm1,\pm2,\pm3 and ±4 \pm4. The ν=±1\nu=\pm1 and ν=±3\nu=\pm3 phases all support localized Majorana modes and are examples of Ising and SU(2)2SU(2)_2 anyon theories respectively.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1012.5276,
  title  = {Kaleidoscope of topological phases with multiple Majorana species},
  author = {G. Kells and J. Kailasvuori and J. Slingerland and J. Vala},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.5276},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

6 pages, 5 figures. The second version has a new title, reflecting a change of focus of the presentation in this version. The third version contains minor changes and is essentially the one published in New Journal of Physics