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arXiv · 2605.22460

Current-driven reduction of topological protection in multichannel superconductors

Alfonso Maiellaro
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Abstract

We investigate the robustness of topological phases in a Kitaev ladder composed of two coupled superconducting chains under the perturbing influence of a finite charge current. By introducing an effective Hamiltonian depending on the quasiparticle momentum induced by the current, we show that the two-mode topological phase, present in the isolated ladder, is fragile against a finite current flux. To characterize this behavior, we combine bulk topological invariants with real-space diagnostics, including the edge-edge quantum conditional mutual information Iee, which provides an entanglement-based signature of topological order. Our results provide an effective framework to describe how current injection and measurement processes can affect topological protection in superconducting nanostructures.

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Alfonso Maiellaro. 2026-05-21. Current-driven reduction of topological protection in multichannel superconductors. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.22460

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