Real-space topological invariant for time-quasiperiodic Majorana modes

ORAL

Abstract

When subjected to quasiperiodic driving protocols, superconducting systems have been found to harbor robust time-quasiperiodic Majorana modes, extending the concept beyond static and Floquet systems. However, the presence of incommensurate driving frequencies results in dense energy spectra, rendering conventional methods of defining topological invariants based on band structure inadequate. In this work, we introduce a real-space topological invariant capable of identifying time-quasiperiodic Majorana modes by leveraging the system's spectral localizer, which integrates information from both Hamiltonian and position operators. Drawing insights from non-Hermitian physics, we establish criteria for constructing the localizer and elucidate the robustness of this invariant in the presence of dense spectra. Our numerical simulations, focusing on a Kitaev chain driven by two incommensurate frequencies, validate the efficacy of our approach.

*This work is supported by NSF PREP Grant No. PHY2216774. G.R. is grateful for support from AFOSR MURI Grant No. FA9550-22-1-0339, as well as the Simons Foundation and the Institute of Quantum Information and Matter, an NSF Frontier Center with partial support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Publication: Z. Qi, I. Na, G. Refael, Y. Peng. Real-space topological invariant for time-quasiperiodic Majorana modes, Phys. Rev. B 110, 014309 (2024).

Presenters

  • Zihao Qi

    • Cornell University

Authors

  • Zihao Qi

    • Cornell University
  • Ilyoun Na

    • Department of Physics, UC Berkeley
    • University of California, Berkeley
  • Gil Refael

    • Caltech
  • Yang Peng

    • California State University, Northridge