Splitting and oscillation of Majorana zero modes in the p-wave BCS-BEC evolution with plural vortices

Journal Article · Sun Aug 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.82.023624· OSTI ID:21456944

Mizushima, T; Machida, K ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530 (Japan)

We investigate how the vortex-vortex separation changes Majorana zero modes in the vicinity of the BCS-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) topological phase transition of p-wave resonant Fermi gases. By analytically and numerically solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation for spinless p-wave superfluids with plural vortices, it is demonstrated that the quasiparticle tunneling between neighboring vortices gives rise to the quantum oscillation of the low-lying spectra on the scale of the Fermi wavelength in addition to the exponential splitting. This rapid oscillation, which appears in the weak-coupling regime as a consequence of quantum oscillations of quasiparticle wave functions, disappears in the vicinity of the BCS-BEC topological phase transition. This is understandable from that the wave function of the Majorana zero modes is described by the modified Bessel function in the strong-coupling regime, and thus it becomes spread over the vortex core region. Due to the exponential divergence of the modified Bessel function, the concrete realization of the Majorana zero modes near the topological phase transition requires the neighboring vortices to be separated beyond the length scale defined by the coherence length and the dimensionless coupling constant. All these behaviors are also confirmed by carrying out the full numerical diagonalization of the nonlocal Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation in a two-dimensional geometry. Furthermore, this argument is expanded into the case of three-vortex systems, where a pair of core-bound and edge-bound Majorana states survive at zero-energy state regardless of the vortex separation.

• OSTI ID: 21456944
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 82; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
BCS THEORY
BESSEL FUNCTIONS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
COHERENCE LENGTH
COUPLING
COUPLING CONSTANTS
DIMENSIONS
ENERGY SPECTRA
FERMI GAS
FUNCTIONS
LENGTH
MATHEMATICS
OSCILLATIONS
P WAVES
PARTIAL WAVES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
SPECTRA
SUPERFLUIDITY
TOPOLOGY
TUNNEL EFFECT
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
VORTICES
WAVE FUNCTIONS