Topological phase transitions in random Kitaev $\alpha$-chains

Abstract

The topological phases of random Kitaev $\alpha$-chains are labelled by the number of localized edge Majorana Zero Modes. The critical lines between these phases thus correspond to delocalization transitions for these localized edge Majorana Zero Modes. For the random Kitaev chain with next-nearest couplings, where there are three possible topological phases $n=0,1,2$, the two Lyapunov exponents of Majorana Zero Modes are computed for a specific solvable case of Cauchy disorder, in order to analyze how the phase diagram evolves as a function of the disorder strength. In particular, the direct phase transition between the phases $n=0$ and $n=2$ is possible only in the absence of disorder, while the presence of disorder always induces an intermediate phase $n=1$, as found previously via numerics for other distributions of disorder.