2000/10/30 by Alexei Kitaev, A Yu Kitaev · 12 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Rare-earth and actinide compounds #Spectral Theory in Mathematical Physics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1070/1063-7869/44/10s/s29
16 pages, 5 figures, Latex and epsf, to be included in the proceedings of the Mesoscopic And Strongly Correlated Electron Systems conference (9-16 July 2000, Chernogolovka, Moscow Region, Russia), one reference added
arxiv created 2000/10/30 · openalex publication_date 2001/10/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Certain one-dimensional Fermi systems have an energy gap in the bulk spectrum while boundary states are described by one Majorana operator per boundary point. A finite system of length L possesses two ground states with an energy difference proportional to exp(- L / l 0 ) and different fermionic parities. Such systems can be used as qubits since they are intrinsically immune to decoherence. The property of a system to have boundary Majorana fermions is expressed as a condition on the bulk electron spectrum. The condition is satisfied in the presence of an arbitrary small energy gap induced by proximity of a three-dimensional p-wave superconductor, provided that the normal spectrum has an odd number of Fermi points in each half of the Brillouin zone (each spin component counts separately).