Berlin 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 19: Frustrated Magnets - Spin Liquids - Theory

TT 19.5: Vortrag

Montag, 12. März 2018, 16:00–16:15, H 3010

Majorana zero modes in the Kitaev honeycomb model — •Daniel Otten, Ananda Roy, and Fabian Hassler — JARA-Institute for Quantum Information, RWTH Aachen University, D-52056 Aachen, Germany

Kitaev’s honeycomb model is a quantum spin liquid that gives rise to an emergent static Z₂ gauge field coupled to Majorana fermions. In presence of an applied external magnetic field, the system is, dependent on the choice of interaction strength, in a gapped, non-abelian phase. In this phase, the vortex excitations of the emergent Z₂ gauge field have Majorana zero modes bound to them. We investigate the properties of these Majorana zero modes. Using Jordan-Wigner transformation, we map the effective Hamiltonian to that of a chiral p-wave superconductor. We analytically calculate the wave functions of the Majorana zero modes in the continuum limit and the energy splitting that arises when two vortices approach each other. Furthermore, to understand the implications of the zero modes in the original spin model, we calculate the spin-spin correlator and the dynamical structure factor in presence of these vortices. These results are relevant for possible experimental observations and characterizations of the Majorana zero modes in systems that are dominated by the interaction of the Kitaev honeycomb model.