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DTSTAMP:20260917T063656Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20121116T203436Z
DTSTART:20120208T160000Z
DTEND:20120208T170000Z
UID:event870@bu.edu
URL:http://physics.bu.edu/internal/events/show/870
SUMMARY:The search Majorana fermions and non-Abelian statistics in semicond
	uctor-superconductor systems.
DESCRIPTION:Featuring Jay Deep Sau\, Harvard University\n\nPart of the Cond
	ensed Matter Theory Seminar Series.\n\nAbstract: Majorana fermions are hith
	erto unobserved exotic excitations\, which are their own anti-particles. De
	spite the nomenclature\, Majorana fermions are neither fermions nor bosons 
	but have novel exchange statistics that categorizes them as non-Abelian any
	ons. Non-Abelian anyons are associated with a ground state degeneracy of th
	e entire system\, which cannot be broken by any external fields. Observing 
	such a topologically robust ground state degeneracy would not only be a fun
	damental breakthrough in physics\, but could also be used to create topolog
	ical quantum computers which are free of the decoherence problem. I will de
	scribe our work which suggests that topological superconductors containing 
	Majoranas are fairly generic and a large class of spin-orbit coupled system
	s can be used to realize Majorana fermions. Possible experimental tests of 
	these ideas range from simple tunneling experiments to test the existence o
	f zero-energy Majorana states to explicit demonstration of non-Abelian stat
	istics through tunneling coupled nanowire arrays and interferometry. Finall
	y\, we will discuss how the spin-orbit coupled models motivate an intrinsic
	ally number conserving microscopic model of a topological superconductor me
	diated by attractive interactions\, which supports Majorana fermions. The b
	osonization approach used to study this one-dimensional model makes transpa
	rent the connection between the topological order described by Majorana fer
	mions and the emergent Ising order in such spin-orbit coupled superconducto
	rs.
LOCATION:SCI 328\, 590 Commonwealth Avenue\, 02215
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CLASS:PUBLIC
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