English

Thermodynamics of Non-Hermitian Josephson junctions with exceptional points

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2025-03-13 v2 Quantum Physics

Abstract

We present an analytical formulation of the thermodynamics, free energy and entropy, of any generic Bogoliubov de Genes model which develops exceptional point (EP) bifurcations in its complex spectrum when coupled to reservoirs. We apply our formalism to a non-Hermitian Josephson junction where, despite recent claims, the supercurrent does not exhibit any divergences at EPs. The entropy, on the contrary, shows a universal jump of 1/2log21/2\log 2 which can be linked to the emergence of Majorana zero modes (MZMs) at EPs. Our method allows us to obtain precise analytical boundaries for the temperatures at which such Majorana entropy steps appear. We propose a generalized Maxwell relation linking supercurrents and entropy which could pave the way towards the direct experimental observation of such steps in e.g. quantum-dot based minimal Kitaev chains.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.02387,
  title  = {Thermodynamics of Non-Hermitian Josephson junctions with exceptional points},
  author = {D. Michel Pino and Yigal Meir and Ramón Aguado},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.02387},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

25 pages, 17 Figures