Fragility of the Fractional Josephson Effect in Time-Reversal-Invariant Topological Superconductors
- Creators
-
Knapp, Christina
-
Chew, Aaron
-
Alicea, Jason
Abstract
Time-reversal-invariant topological superconductor (TRITOPS) wires host Majorana Kramers pairs that have been predicted to mediate a fractional Josephson effect with 4π periodicity in the superconducting phase difference. We explore the TRITOPS fractional Josephson effect in the presence of time-dependent "local mixing" perturbations that instantaneously preserve time-reversal symmetry. Specifically, we show that just as such couplings render braiding of Majorana Kramers pairs nonuniversal, the Josephson current becomes either aperiodic or 2π periodic (depending on conditions that we quantify) unless the phase difference is swept sufficiently quickly. We further analyze topological superconductors with T² = +1 time-reversal symmetry and reveal a rich interplay between interactions and local mixing that can be experimentally probed in nanowire arrays.
Additional Information
© 2020 American Physical Society. (Received 3 July 2020; accepted 1 October 2020; published 12 November 2020) We are grateful to Arbel Haim, Torsten Karzig, and Yang Peng for illuminating discussions. We also thank Dima Pikulin and Charlie Marcus for conversations that stimulated this research. This work was supported by the Army Research Office under Grant No. W911NF-17-1-0323; the National Science Foundation through Grant No. DMR-1723367; the Caltech Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, an NSF Physics Frontiers Center with support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant No. GBMF1250; the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics at Caltech; and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations EPiQS Initiative, Grant No. GBMF8682.Attached Files
Published - PhysRevLett.125.207002.pdf
Supplemental Material - Appendix.pdf
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:cabc54bbed19d8f38bb2467d13d39c7a
|
926.9 kB | Preview Download |
md5:296defd04d69ca6302da260b0b8db3c5
|
374.0 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 106640
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20201112-103611049
- Army Research Office (ARO)
- W911NF-17-1-0323
- NSF
- DMR-1723367
- Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM)
- NSF Physics Frontiers Center
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- GBMF1250
- Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, Caltech
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- GBMF8682
- Created
-
2020-11-16Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics