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Published June 2, 2011 | Published + Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Majorana Fermions in Equilibrium and in Driven Cold-Atom Quantum Wires

Abstract

We introduce a new approach to create and detect Majorana fermions using optically trapped 1D fermionic atoms. In our proposed setup, two internal states of the atoms couple via an optical Raman transition—simultaneously inducing an effective spin-orbit interaction and magnetic field—while a background molecular BEC cloud generates s-wave pairing for the atoms. The resulting cold-atom quantum wire supports Majorana fermions at phase boundaries between topologically trivial and nontrivial regions, as well as "Floquet Majorana fermions" when the system is periodically driven. We analyze experimental parameters, detection schemes, and various imperfections.

Additional Information

© 2011 American Physical Society. Received 26 February 2011; revised 27 April 2011; published 2 June 2011. We would like to thank Ian Spielman for enlightening discussions. This work was supported by the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, DARPA OLE program, CUA, NSF, AFOSR Quantum Simulation MURI, AFOSR MURI on Ultracold Molecules, ARO-MURI on Atomtronics, and Dutch Science Foundation NWO/FOM.

Attached Files

Published - Jiang2011p14114Phys_Rev_Lett.pdf

Supplemental Material - ColdAtomsMF_EPAPS_20110507.pdf

Supplemental Material - README.TXT

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