Proposal of pinned Majorana bound states in topological and correlated multi Dirac-Weyl materials with broken inversion symmetry

• Grant number: 23/13467-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2024
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Carlos Ferreira Seridonio
• Grantee: Antonio Carlos Ferreira Seridonio
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Ilha Solteira. Ilha Solteira , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Enesio Marinho da Silva Jr ; Willian Carvalho da Silva

Abstract

In this project the possibility of Majorana bound states (MBSs) triggered by the breaking down of the inversion symmetry (IS) due to a thresholdof an electric field will be explored in topological and correlated multi Dirac-Weyl materials. As a system of interest, the magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG), within the topological heavy fermion Hamiltonian framework of the periodic Anderson model (PAM) [Physical Review Letters 129, 047601 (2022)] by B. Andrei Bernevig et al., will be considered. To the best of knowledge, the MATBG is attractive once it shows, off the the PAM picture, formation of a pinned zero energy mode due to broken IS in the system Dirac cones {https://agencia.fapesp.br/twisted-bilayer-graphene-creates-new-type-of-molecular-bond/39144 by A. C. Seridonio et al.}.Interestingly enough, zero mode states are special, once they can be MBSs, which are highly pursued for the realization of perfect fault-tolerant topological quantum computing {https://agencia.fapesp.br/thermoelectric-nanodevice-based-on-majorana-fermions-is-proposed/27482 by A. C. Seridonio et al.}.Astonishingly, if one has the zero mode due to broken IS, A. C. Seridonio et al. demonstrated that it remains pinned at the Fermienergy even by increasing the field strength. This is in drastic contrast to ordinary MBSs observed in p-wave superconductors with broken time-reversal symmetry (TRS) due to a magnetic field. In such a case, the MBS quenches with the corresponding field enhancement instead. Consequently, this project is timely once it proposes to investigate if the localized electrons of the PAM in the MATBG could also lead to MBSs spread periodically over the moiré superlatticeand immune to the electric field increase. Other candidates of relevance for the realization of the pinned zero energy mode can be the multi-Weylsemimetals and moiréless ABC multilayer graphene, where the interplay of topological invariants such as the Chern number and Berry phase, respectively, of higher order than in the MATBG, with Anderson-like impurities, should be examined. This way, broken IS based-MBSs could be feasible. (AU)