A phase from an adiabatic exchange of Majorana bound states (MBS) reveals their exotic anyonic nature. For detecting this exchange phase, we propose an experimental setup consisting of a Corbino-geometry Josephson junction on the surface of a topolog
ical insulator, in which two MBS at zero energy can be created and rotated. We find that if a metallic tip is weakly coupled to a point on the junction, the time-averaged differential conductance of the tip-Majorana coupling shows peaks at the tip voltages $eV = pm (alpha - 2pi l) hbar/ T_J$, where $alpha = pi/2$ is the exchange phase of the two circulating MBS, $T_J$ is the half rotation time of MBS, and $l$ an integer. This result constitutes a clear experimental signature of Majorana fermion exchange.
Majorana fermions in a superconductor hybrid system are charge neutral zero-energy states. For the detection of this unique feature, we propose an interferometry of a chiral Majorana edge channel, formed along the interface between a superconductor a
nd a topological insulator under an external magnetic field. The superconductor is of a ring shape and has a Josephson junction that allows the Majorana state to enclose continuously tunable magnetic flux. Zero-bias differential electron conductance between the Majorana state and a normal lead is found to be independent of the flux at zero temperature, manifesting the Majorana feature of a charge neutral zero-energy state. In contrast, the same setup on graphene has no Majorana state and shows Aharonov-Bohm effects.
We theoretically study electronic properties of a graphene sheet on xy plane in a spatially nonuniform magnetic field, $B = B_0 hat{z}$ in one domain and $B = B_1 hat{z}$ in the other domain, in the quantum Hall regime and in the low-energy limit. We
find that the magnetic edge states of the Dirac fermions, formed along the boundary between the two domains, have features strongly dependent on whether $B_0$ is parallel or antiparallel to $B_1$. In the parallel case, when the Zeeman spin splitting can be ignored, the magnetic edge states originating from the $n=0$ Landau levels of the two domains have dispersionless energy levels, contrary to those from the $n e 0$ levels. Here, $n$ is the graphene Landau-level index. They become dispersive as the Zeeman splitting becomes finite or as an electrostatic step potential is additionally applied. In the antiparallel case, the $n=0$ magnetic edge states split into electron-like and hole-like current-carrying states. The energy gap between the electron-like and hole-like states can be created by the Zeeman splitting or by the step potential. These features are attributed to the fact that the pseudo-spin of the magnetic edge states couples to the direction of the magnetic field. We propose an Aharonov-Bohm interferometry setup in a graphene ribbon for experimental study of the magnetic edge states.
