Topological Pair-Density-Wave Superconducting States

Gil Young Cho, Rodrigo Soto-Garrido, and Eduardo Fradkin
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 256405 – Published 19 December 2014
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Abstract

We show that the pair-density-wave (PDW) superconducting state emergent in extended Heisenberg-Hubbard models in two-leg ladders is topological in the presence of an Ising spin symmetry and supports a Majorana zero mode (MZM) at an open boundary and at a junction with a uniform d-wave one-dimensional superconductor. Similarly to a conventional finite-momentum paired state, the order parameter of the PDW state is a charge-2e field with finite momentum. However, the order parameter here is a quartic electron operator and conventional mean-field theory cannot be applied to study this state. We use bosonization to show that the 1D PDW state has a MZM at a boundary. This superconducting state is an exotic topological phase supporting Majorana fermions with finite-momentum pairing fields and charge-4e superconductivity.

  • Received 23 July 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.256405

© 2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Gil Young Cho1, Rodrigo Soto-Garrido1, and Eduardo Fradkin1,2

  • 1Department of Physics and Institute for Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801-3080, USA
  • 2Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, California 93106-4030, USA

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Issue

Vol. 113, Iss. 25 — 19 December 2014

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