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Adiabatic non-Abelian braiding of imperfect Majorana bound states

Nitsch, Maximilian LU orcid ; Svensson, Viktor LU ; Samuelson, William LU orcid ; Nestmann, Konstantin LU ; Danon, Jeroen ; Flensberg, Karsten ; Seoane Souto, Rubén LU orcid and Leijnse, Martin LU (2026) In Physical Review B 113(20).
Abstract
Demonstration of a nontrivial result of quasiparticle exchange (or braiding) is usually considered the definitive proof of a topological phase with non-Abelian excitations, such as Majorana bound states (MBSs). However, in finite systems with disorder and smooth potential variations, the MBSs are imperfect in the sense that they are not fully isolated in space and can, to a varying degree, resemble conventional fermions. The main goal of this work is to reveal the braiding properties of isolated MBSs, regular fermions, and anything in between. We start from an experimentally attractive braiding protocol and find a way to compensate for the undesired splitting of the ground-state degeneracy which occurs during the protocol for imperfect... (More)
Demonstration of a nontrivial result of quasiparticle exchange (or braiding) is usually considered the definitive proof of a topological phase with non-Abelian excitations, such as Majorana bound states (MBSs). However, in finite systems with disorder and smooth potential variations, the MBSs are imperfect in the sense that they are not fully isolated in space and can, to a varying degree, resemble conventional fermions. The main goal of this work is to reveal the braiding properties of isolated MBSs, regular fermions, and anything in between. We start from an experimentally attractive braiding protocol and find a way to compensate for the undesired splitting of the ground-state degeneracy which occurs during the protocol for imperfect MBSs. This leads to a braiding outcome that depends on the degree of MBS isolation but remains robust and non-Abelian except in the perfect fermion limit. Our protocol could be implemented in different platforms with non-Abelian excitations, including quantum-dot-based minimal Kitaev chains. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Physical Review B
volume
113
issue
20
article number
L201408
publisher
American Physical Society
ISSN
2469-9950
DOI
10.1103/3vcb-pxp6
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a99bac97-d435-4c5c-831f-9b8b6f1cb6ba
date added to LUP
2026-05-29 14:29:50
date last changed
2026-06-01 08:54:27
@article{a99bac97-d435-4c5c-831f-9b8b6f1cb6ba,
  abstract     = {{Demonstration of a nontrivial result of quasiparticle exchange (or braiding) is usually considered the definitive proof of a topological phase with non-Abelian excitations, such as Majorana bound states (MBSs). However, in finite systems with disorder and smooth potential variations, the MBSs are imperfect in the sense that they are not fully isolated in space and can, to a varying degree, resemble conventional fermions. The main goal of this work is to reveal the braiding properties of isolated MBSs, regular fermions, and anything in between. We start from an experimentally attractive braiding protocol and find a way to compensate for the undesired splitting of the ground-state degeneracy which occurs during the protocol for imperfect MBSs. This leads to a braiding outcome that depends on the degree of MBS isolation but remains robust and non-Abelian except in the perfect fermion limit. Our protocol could be implemented in different platforms with non-Abelian excitations, including quantum-dot-based minimal Kitaev chains.}},
  author       = {{Nitsch, Maximilian and Svensson, Viktor and Samuelson, William and Nestmann, Konstantin and Danon, Jeroen and Flensberg, Karsten and Seoane Souto, Rubén and Leijnse, Martin}},
  issn         = {{2469-9950}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{20}},
  publisher    = {{American Physical Society}},
  series       = {{Physical Review B}},
  title        = {{Adiabatic non-Abelian braiding of imperfect Majorana bound states}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/3vcb-pxp6}},
  doi          = {{10.1103/3vcb-pxp6}},
  volume       = {{113}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}