Interaction-induced strong zero modes in short quantum dot chains with time-reversal symmetry

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Bozkurt, A. Mert, Miles, Sebastian, Haaf, Sebastiaan L. D. ten, Liu, Chun-Xiao, Hassler, Fabian, Wimmer, Michael
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Bozkurt, A. Mert
Miles, Sebastian
Haaf, Sebastiaan L. D. ten
Liu, Chun-Xiao
Hassler, Fabian
Wimmer, Michael
author_facet Bozkurt, A. Mert
Miles, Sebastian
Haaf, Sebastiaan L. D. ten
Liu, Chun-Xiao
Hassler, Fabian
Wimmer, Michael
contents We theoretically explore the emergence of strong zero modes in a two-site chain consisting of two quantum dots coupled due to a central dot that mediates electron hopping and singlet superconducting pairing. In the presence of time-reversal symmetry, the on-site Coulomb interaction leads to a three-fold ground-state degeneracy when tuning the system to a sweet spot as a function of the inter-dot couplings. This degeneracy is protected against changes of the dot energies in the same way as "poor man's'' Majorana bound states in short Kitaev chains. In the limit of strong interactions, this protection is maximal and the entire spectrum becomes triply degenerate, indicating the emergence of a ''poor man's'' version of a strong zero mode. We explain the degeneracy and protection by constructing corresponding Majorana Kramers-pair operators and $\mathbb{Z}_3$-parafermion operators. The strong zero modes share many properties of Majorana bound states in short Kitaev chains, including the stability of zero-bias peaks in the conductance and the behavior upon coupling to an additional quantum dot. However, they can be distinguished through finite-bias spectroscopy and the exhibit a different behavior when scaling to longer chains.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_14940
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Interaction-induced strong zero modes in short quantum dot chains with time-reversal symmetry
Bozkurt, A. Mert
Miles, Sebastian
Haaf, Sebastiaan L. D. ten
Liu, Chun-Xiao
Hassler, Fabian
Wimmer, Michael
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Superconductivity
We theoretically explore the emergence of strong zero modes in a two-site chain consisting of two quantum dots coupled due to a central dot that mediates electron hopping and singlet superconducting pairing. In the presence of time-reversal symmetry, the on-site Coulomb interaction leads to a three-fold ground-state degeneracy when tuning the system to a sweet spot as a function of the inter-dot couplings. This degeneracy is protected against changes of the dot energies in the same way as "poor man's'' Majorana bound states in short Kitaev chains. In the limit of strong interactions, this protection is maximal and the entire spectrum becomes triply degenerate, indicating the emergence of a ''poor man's'' version of a strong zero mode. We explain the degeneracy and protection by constructing corresponding Majorana Kramers-pair operators and $\mathbb{Z}_3$-parafermion operators. The strong zero modes share many properties of Majorana bound states in short Kitaev chains, including the stability of zero-bias peaks in the conductance and the behavior upon coupling to an additional quantum dot. However, they can be distinguished through finite-bias spectroscopy and the exhibit a different behavior when scaling to longer chains.
title Interaction-induced strong zero modes in short quantum dot chains with time-reversal symmetry
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Superconductivity
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.14940