Majorana modes and p-wave superfluids for fermionic atoms in optical lattices

2014/03/03 by Adam Bühler, A. Bühler, Nicolai Lang +4 · 90 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Fermion #MAJORANA #Majorana equation #Physics #Quantum #Quantum computer #Quantum mechanics #Quasiparticle #Superconductivity #Superfluidity #Theoretical physics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological quantum computer #Topology (electrical circuits) #Wave function #cond-mat.quant-gas

paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/ncomms5504

published in Nature Communications 5(1), 4504 (Nature Portfolio)

arxiv created 2014/03/03 · openalex publication_date 2014/07/25 · arxiv updated 2014/07/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We present a simple approach to create a strong p-wave interaction for fermions in an optical lattice. The crucial step is that the combination of a lattice setup with different orbital states and s-wave interactions can give rise to a strong induced p-wave pairing. We identify different topological phases and demonstrate that the setup offers a natural way to explore the transition from Kitaev's Majorana wires to two-dimensional p-wave superfluids. We demonstrate how this design can induce Majorana modes at edge dislocations in the optical lattice, and we provide an experimentally feasible protocol for the observation of the non-Abelian statistics.

Citations

• Braiding of Abelian and Non-Abelian Anyons in the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect
• Periodic table for topological insulators and superconductors
• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Feshbach resonances in ultracold gases
• Classification of topological insulators and superconductors in three spatial dimensions
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• Topological Insulators with Inversion Symmetry
• Probing Non-Abelian Statistics of Majorana Fermions in Ultracold Atomic Superfluid
• Helical Liquids and Majorana Bound States in Quantum Wires
• Search for Majorana Fermions in Superconductors
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• Fault-tolerant quantum computation by anyons
• Anyons in an exactly solved model and beyond
• Non-Abelian anyons and topological quantum computation
• Nonabelions in the fractional quantum hall effect
• Unpaired Majorana fermions in quantum wires