2024/09/06 by Quiroga, Luis, Gómez-Ruiz, Fernando J., Bocanegra-Garay, Ivan A. +2
#FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2409.04515
We investigate the effects of coupling a local electromagnetic cavity to a segment of a topological Kitaev chain (KC), with particular emphasis on the interplay between photons and Majorana zero modes (MZMs). In addition to the well-known \it scissor effect-which effectively partitions the chain and isolates free MZMs in the bulk-we provide evidence of non-trivial fusion rules and braiding operations, hallmark signatures of non-Abelian anyons, enabled by spatially selective ultrastrong KC-cavity coupling. We propose that these distinctive MZM properties can be experimentally probed via fermionic parity measurements and photon-induced Berry phases. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, in the so-called sweet-spot regime, the coupled system can be mapped onto a Rabi-like model with a homodyne-rotated quadrature, offering a simplified yet powerful theoretical description. Exploiting the symmetry of fermionic modes within a two-site cavity configuration, we also show the feasibility of generating hybrid MZM-polariton Schrödinger cat states. Our findings offer a novel approach to manipulating topological quantum matter through local light-matter interactions and provide theoretical tools for future experimental realizations in platforms such as quantum materials or superconducting circuits.