We theoretically study the spectrum induced by one and two magnetic impurities near the boundary of a one-dimensional nanowire in proximity to a conventional $s$-wave superconductor and extract the ground state magnetic configuration. We show that th
e energies of the subgap states, supported by the magnetic impurities, are strongly affected by the boundary for distances less than the superconducting coherence length. In particular, when the impurity is moved towards the boundary, multiple quantum phase transitions periodically occur in which the parity of the superconducting condensate oscillates between even and odd. We find that the magnetic ground state configuration of two magnetic impurities depends not only on the distance between them but also explicitly on their distance away from the boundary of the nanowire. As a consequence, the magnetic ground state can switch from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic while keeping the inter-impurity distance unaltered by simultaneously moving both impurities away from the boundary. The ground state magnetic configuration of two impurities is found analytically in the weak coupling regime and exactly for an arbitrary impurity coupling strength using numerical tight-binding simulations.
We study the spin transport through a 1D quantum Ising-XY-Ising spin link that emulates a topological superconducting-normal-superconducting structure via Jordan-Wigner (JW) transformation. We calculate, both analytically and numerically, the spectru
m of spin Andreev bound states and the resulting $mathbb{Z}_2$ fractional spin Josephson effect (JE) pertaining to the emerging Majorana JW fermions. Deep in the topological regime, we identify an effective time-reversal symmetry that leads to $mathbb{Z}_4$ fractional spin JE in the $textit{presence}$ of interactions within the junction. Moreover, we uncover a hidden inversion time-reversal symmetry that protects the $mathbb{Z}_4$ periodicity in chains with an odd number of spins, even in the $textit{absence}$ of interactions. We also analyze the entanglement between pairs of spins by evaluating the concurrence in the presence of spin current and highlight the effects of the JW Majorana states. We propose to use a microwave cavity setup for detecting the aforementioned JEs by dispersive readout methods and show that, surprisingly, the $mathbb{Z}_2$ periodicity is immune to $textit{any}$ local magnetic perturbations. Our results are relevant for a plethora of spin systems, such as trapped ions, photonic lattices, electron spins in quantum dots, or magnetic impurities on surfaces.
We study the coupling between a singlet-triplet qubit realized in a double quantum dot to a topological qubit realized by spatially well-separated Majorana bound states. We demonstrate that the singlet-triplet qubit can be leveraged for readout of th
e topological qubit and for supplementing the gate operations that cannot be performed by braiding of Majorana bound states. Furthermore, we extend our setup to a network of singlet-triplet and topological hybrid qubits that paves the way to scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing.
We study theoretically the detection of the topological phase transition occurring in Rashba nanowires with proximity-induced superconductivity using a quantum dot. The bulk states lowest in energy of such a nanowire have a spin polarization parallel
or antiparallel to the applied magnetic field in the topological or trivial phase, respectively. We show that this property can be probed by the quantum dot created at the end of the nanowire by external gates. By tuning one of the two spin-split levels of the quantum dot to be in resonance with nanowire bulk states, one can detect the spin polarization of the lowest band via transport measurement. This allows one to determine the topological phase of the Rashba nanowire independently of the presence of Majorana bound states.
Considering Rashba quantum wires with a proximity-induced superconducting gap as physical realizations of Majorana fermions and quantum dots, we calculate the overlap of the Majorana wave functions with the local wave functions on the dot. We determi
ne the spin-dependent tunneling amplitudes between these two localized states and show that we can tune into a fully spin polarized tunneling regime by changing the distance between dot and Majorana fermion. Upon directly applying this to the tunneling model Hamiltonian, we calculate the effective magnetic field on the quantum dot flanked by two Majorana fermions. The direction of the induced magnetic field on the dot depends on the occupation of the nonlocal fermion formed from the two Majorana end states which can be used as a readout for such a Majorana qubit.
We study the quantum propagation of a Skyrmion in chiral magnetic insulators by generalizing the micromagnetic equations of motion to a finite-temperature path integral formalism, using field theoretic tools. Promoting the center of the Skyrmion to a
dynamic quantity, the fluctuations around the Skyrmionic configuration give rise to a time-dependent damping of the Skyrmion motion. From the frequency dependence of the damping kernel, we are able to identify the Skyrmion mass, thus providing a microscopic description of the kinematic properties of Skyrmions. When defects are present or a magnetic trap is applied, the Skyrmion mass acquires a finite value proportional to the effective spin, even at vanishingly small temperature. We demonstrate that a Skyrmion in a confined geometry provided by a magnetic trap behaves as a massive particle owing to its quasi-one-dimensional confinement. An additional quantum mass term is predicted, independent of the effective spin, with an explicit temperature dependence which remains finite even at zero temperature.
The interplay of superconductivity, magnetic fields, and spin-orbit interaction lies at the heart of topological superconductivity. Remarkably, the recent experimental discovery of $varphi_{0}$ Josephson junctions by Szombati et al., Nat. Phys. 12, 5
68 (2016), characterized by a finite phase offset in the supercurrent, require the same ingredients as topological superconductors, which suggests a profound connection between these two distinct phenomena. Here, we theoretically show that a quantum dot $varphi_{0}$ Josephson junction can serve as a new qualitative indicator for topological superconductivity: Microscopically, we find that the phase shift in a junction of $s-$wave superconductors is due to the spin-orbit induced mixing of singly occupied states on the qantum dot, while for a topological superconductor junction it is due to singlet-triplet mixing. Because of this important difference, when the spin-orbit vector of the quantum dot and the external Zeeman field are orthogonal, the $s$-wave superconductors form a $pi$ Josephson junction while the topological superconductors have a finite offset $varphi_{0}$ by which topological superconductivity can be distinguished from conventional superconductivity. Our prediction can be immediately tested in nanowire systems currently used for Majorana fermion experiments and thus offers a new and realistic approach for detecting topological bound states.
