arXiv subjects

Sumanta Tewari

Publications and source records attributed to Sumanta Tewari.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Non-locality of zero-bias anomalies in the topologically-trivial phase of Majorana wires

We show that the topologically trivial zero bias peak (ZBP) emerging in semiconductor Majorana wires due to soft confinement exhibits correlated splitting oscillations as a function of the applied Zeeman field, similar to the correlated splitting of the Majorana ZBP. Also, we find that the presence of a strong impurity can effectively cut the wire in two and destroy the correlated splitting in both the trivial and the Majorana regimes. We identify a strong nonlocal effect that operates only in the topologically trivial regime and demonstrate that the dependence of the ZBP on the confining gate potential at the opposite end in Majorana wires with two normal metal end-contacts represents a powerful tool for discriminating between topologically trivial and nontrivial ZBPs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Majorana fermions in quasi-1D and higher dimensional ultracold fermionic optical lattices

We show that Majorana fermions (MFs) exist in two- and three-dimensional (2D,3D) fermionic optical lattices with strictly 1D spin-orbit coupling (SOC) which has already been realized in ex- periments. For a quasi-1D topological BCS superfluid, there are multiple MFs at each end which are topologically protected by a chiral symmetry. In the generalization to higher dimensions, the multiple MFs form a zero energy flat band. An additional experimentally tunable in-plane Zeeman field drives the system to a topological Fulde-Ferrell (FF) superfluid phase. We find that even though the multiple MFs are robust against the in-plane Zeeman field if the order parameters at the different chains are enforced to be identical, they are destroyed in the self-consistently obtained FF phase where the order parameters are inhomogeneous on the boundaries. Our results are useful to guide the experimentalists on searching for MFs in the context of ultracold fermionic atoms.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Axionic field theory of (3+1)-dimensional Weyl semi-metals

From a direct calculation of the anomalous Hall conductivity and an effective electromagnetic action obtained via Fujikawa's chiral rotation technique, we conclude that an axionic field theory with a non-quantized coefficient describes the electromagnetic response of the $(3+1)$-dimensional Weyl semi-metal. The coefficient is proportional to the momentum space separation of the Weyl nodes. Akin to the Chern-Simons field theory of quantum Hall effect, the axion field theory violates gauge invariance in the presence of the boundary, which is cured by the chiral anomaly of the surface states via the Callan-Harvey mechanism. This provides a unique solution for the radiatively induced CPT-odd term in the electromagnetic polarization tensor of the Lorentz violating spinor electrodynamics, where the source of the Lorentz violation is a constant axial four vector term for the Dirac fermion. A direct linear response calculation also establishes anomalous thermal Hall effect and a Wiedemann-Franz law, but thermal Hall conductivity does not directly follow from the well known formula for the gravitational chiral anomaly.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Chiral magnetic effect of Weyl fermions and its applications to cubic noncentrosymmetric metals

When the right and the left handed Weyl points are separated in energy, they give rise to a non-dissipative charge current along the direction of a uniform applied magnetic field, even in the absence of an external electric field. This effect is known as the chiral magnetic effect and is a hallmark of the underlying chiral anomaly of the Weyl fermions. According to the linearized continuum theory of Weyl fermions, the induced current is proportional to the magnetic field strength and the energy separation with a universal coefficient $e^2/h^2$. By considering a generic tight binding model for the cubic noncentrosymmetric metals, we show that such a system naturally supports a set of Weyl points, which are separated in energies. We also show the existence of the chiral magnetic effect for generic band parameters, and recover the universal result of the continuum Weyl fermions for a restricted parameter regime. Therefore, cubic noncentrosymmetric metals can serve as suitable platforms for realizing Weyl fermions and the exotic chiral elctrodynamic phenomena, which have promising technological applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Magnetic Field Response and Chiral Symmetry of Time Reversal Invariant Topological Superconductors

We study the magnetic field response of the Majorana Kramers pairs of a one-dimensional time-reversal invariant (TRI) superconductors (class DIII) with or without a coexisting chirality symmetry. For unbroken TR and chirality invariance the parameter regimes for nontrivial values of the (Z_2) DIII-invariant and the (Z) chiral invariant coincide. However, broken TR may or may not be accompanied by broken chirality, and if chiral symmetry is unbroken, the pair of Majorana fermions (MFs) at a given end survives the loss of TR symmetry in an entire plane perpendicular to the spin-orbit coupling field. Conversely, we show that broken chirality may or may not be accompanied by broken TR, and if TR is unbroken, the pair of MFs survives the loss of broken chirality. In addition to explaining the anomalous magnetic field response of all the DIII class TS systems proposed in the literature, we provide a realistic route to engineer a "true" TR-invariant TS, whose pair of MFs at each end is split by an applied Zeeman field in arbitrary direction. We also prove that, quite generally, the splitting of the MFs by TR-breaking fields in TRI superconductors is highly anisotropic in spin space, even in the absence of the topological chiral symmetry.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Topological Properties of Time Reversal Symmetric Kitaev Chain and Applications to Organic Superconductors

We show that the pair of Majorana modes at each end of a 1D spin triplet superconductor with total Cooper pair spin S_x=0 (i.e., Delta_{up,up} = -Delta_{down,down} = p*Delta_0; two uncoupled time reversed copies of the Kitaev p-wave chain) are topologically robust to perturbations such as mixing by the S_z=0 component of the order parameter (Delta_{up,down}=Delta_{down,up}), transverse hopping (in quasi-1D systems), non-magnetic disorder, and also, most importantly, to time reversal breaking perturbations such as applied Zeeman fields/magnetic impurities and the mixing by the S_y=0 component of the triplet order parameter (Delta_{up,up}=Delta_{down,down}). We show that the robustness to time reversal breaking results from a hidden chiral symmetry which places the system in the BDI topological class with an integer Z invariant. Our work has important implications for the quasi-1D organic superconductors (TMTSF)_2X (X=PF_6, CIO_4) (Bechgaard salts) which have been proposed as triplet superconductors with equal spin pairing (Delta_{up,up},Delta_{down,down} \neq 0, Delta_{up,down}=0) in applied magnetic fields.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Topological Uniform Superfluid and FFLO Phases in 3D to 1D crossover of spin-orbit coupled Fermi gases

We consider the quasi-one dimensional system realized by an array of weakly coupled parallel one-dimensional "tubes" in a two-dimensional lattice which permits free motion of atoms in an axial direction in the presence of a Zeeman field, Rashba type spin orbit coupling (SOC), and an s-wave attractive interaction, while the radial motion is tightly confined. We solve the zero-temperature (T=0) Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equations for the quasi-1D Fermi gas with the dispersion modified by tunneling between the tubes, and show that the T=0 phase diagram hosts the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase with non-zero center of mass momentum Cooper pairs for small values of the SOC while for larger values of the SOC and high Zeeman fields the uniform superfluid phase with zero center of mass momentum Cooper pairs has an instability towards the topological uniform superfluid phase with Majorana fermions at the tube ends. Also, we show that tuning the two-dimensional optical lattice strength in this model allows one to explore the crossover behaviors of the phases during the transition between the 3D and the 1D system and in general the FFLO (for small SOC) and the topological uniform superfluid phase (for large SOC) are favored as the system becomes more one-dimensional. We also find evidence of the existence of a Zeeman tuned topological quantum phase transition (TQPT) within the FFLO phase itself and for large values of the Zeeman field and small SOC the TQPT gives rise to a topologically distinct FFLO phase.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Topologically trivial zero bias conductance peak in semiconductor Majorana wires from boundary effects

We show that a topologically trivial zero bias conductance peak (of height 4e^2/h) is produced in semiconductor-superconductor hybrid nanowires due to a suppressed pair potential and/or an excess Zeeman field at the ends of the heterostructure, both of which can occur in experiments. The zero bias peak (ZBP) (a) appears above a threshold parallel bulk Zeeman field, (b) is stable for a range of bulk field before splitting, (c) disappears with rotation of the bulk Zeeman field, and, (d) is robust to weak disorder fluctuations. The ZBPs from the nanowire ends are also expected to produce splitting oscillations with the applied field similar to those from Majorana fermions. We find that the only unambiguous way to distinguish these trivial ZBPs (of height 4e^2/h) from those arising from Majorana fermions (of height 2e^2/h) is by comparing the (zero temperature) peak height and/or through an interference experiment.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Amplitude mode of the $d$-density wave state and its relevance to high-$T_c$ cuprates

We calculate the spectrum of the amplitude mode, the analog of the Higgs mode in high energy physics, for the $d$-density wave (DDW) state proposed to describe the pseudogap phase of the high $T_c$ cuprates. Even though the state breaks translational symmetry by a lattice spacing and is described by a particle-hole singlet order parameter at the wave vector $q=Q=(π,π)$, remarkably, we find that the amplitude mode spectrum can have peaks at both $q=(0,0)$ and $q=Q=(π,π)$; we shall lattice spacing to unity. In general, the spectrum is non-universal, and, depending on the microscopic parameters, can have one or two peaks in the Brillouin zone, signifying existence of two kinds of magnetic excitations. Our theory sheds important light on how multiple inelastic neutron peaks at different wave vectors can, in principle, arise even with an order parameter that condenses at $Q=(π,π)$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Majorana Fermions in Semiconductor Nanowires: Fundamentals, Modeling, and Experiment

After a recent series of rapid and exciting developments, the long search for the Majorana fermion - the elusive quantum entity at the border between particles and antiparticles - has produced the first positive experimental results, but is not over yet. Originally proposed by E. Majorana in the context of particle physics, Majorana fermions have a condensed matter analog in the zero-energy bound states emerging in topological superconductors. A promising route to engineering topological superconductors capable of hosting Majorana zero modes consists of proximity coupling semiconductor thin films or nanowires with strong spin-orbit interaction to conventional s-wave superconductors in the presence of an external Zeeman field. The Majorana zero mode is predicted to emerge above a certain critical Zeeman field as a zero-energy state localized near the order parameter defects, viz., vortices for thin films and wire-ends for the nanowire. These Majorana bound states are expected to manifest non--Abelian quantum statistics, which makes them ideal building blocks for fault--tolerant topological quantum computation. This review provides an update on current status of the search for Majorana fermions in semiconductor nanowires by focusing on the recent developments, in particular the period following the first reports of experimental signatures consistent with the realization of Majorana bound states in semiconductor nanowire--superconductor hybrid structures. We start with a discussion of the fundamental aspects of the subject, followed by considerations on the realistic modeling which is a critical bridge between theoretical predictions based on idealized conditions and the real world, as probed experimentally. The last part is dedicated to a few intriguing issues that were brought to the fore by the recent encouraging experimental advances.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Disentangling Majorana fermions from conventional zero energy states in semiconductor quantum wires

Majorana fermions (MFs) are predicted to occur as zero-energy bound states in semiconductor nanowire-superconductor structures. However, in the presence of disorder or smooth confining potentials, these structures can also host non-topological nearly-zero energy states. Here, we demonstrate that the MFs and the nearly-zero topologically-trivial states have different characteristic signatures in a tunneling conductance measurement, which allows to clearly discriminate between them. We also show that low-energy non-topological states can strongly hybridize with metallic states from the leads, which generates the smooth background that characterizes the soft superconducting gap measured in tunneling experiments and produces an additional decoherence mechanism for the Majorana mode. Our results pave the way for the conclusive identification of MFs in a solid state system and provide directions for minimizing quantum decoherence in Majorana wires.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Thermodynamic signatures for topological phase transitions to Majorana and Weyl superfluids in ultracold Fermi gases

We discuss the thermodynamic signatures for the topological phase transitions into Majorana and Weyl superfluid phases in ultracold Fermi gases in two and three dimensions in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and a Zeeman field. We analyze the thermodynamic properties exhibiting the distinct nature of the topological phase transitions linked with the Majorana fermions (2D Fermi gas) and Weyl fermions (3D Fermi gas) which can be observed experimentally, including pressure, chemical potential, isothermal compressibility, entropy, and specific heat, as a function of the interaction and the Zeeman field at both zero and finite temperatures. We conclude that among the various thermodynamic quantities, the isothermal compressibility and the chemical potential as a function of the artificial Zeeman field have the strongest signatures of the topological transitions in both two and three dimensions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Majorana Fermions Under Uniaxial Stress in Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructures

Spin-orbit coupled semiconductor nanowires with Zeeman splitting in proximity contact with bulk $s$-wave superconductivity have recently been proposed as a promising platform for realizing Majorana fermions. However, in this setup the chemical potential of the nanowire is generally pinned by the Fermi surface of the superconductor. This makes the tuning of the chemical potential by external electrical gates, a crucial requirement for unambiguous detection of Majorana fermions, very challenging in experiments. Here we show that tunable topological superconducting regime supporting Majorana fermions can be realized in semiconductor nanowires using uniaxial stress. For n-type nanowires the uniaxial stress tunes the effective chemical potential, while for p-type systems the effective pairing may also be modified by stress, thus significantly enhancing the topological minigap. We show that the required stress, of the order of 0.1%, is within current experimental reach using conventional piezo crystals.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

To close or not to close: the fate of the superconducting gap across the topological quantum phase transition in Majorana-carrying semiconductor nanowires

We investigate theoretically the low energy physics of semiconductor Majorana wires in the vicinity of a magnetic field-driven topological quantum phase transition (TQPT). The local density of states (LDOS) at the end of the wire, which is directly related to the differential conductance in the limit of point-contact tunneling, is calculated numerically. We find that the dependence of the end-of-wire LDOS on the magnetic field is non-universal and that the signatures associated with the closing of the superconducting gap at the Majorana TQPT are essentially invisible within a significant range of experimentally relevant parameters. Our results provide an explanation for the recent observation of the apparent non-closure of the gap at the Majorana TQPT in semiconductor nanowires.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Topological minigap in quasi-one-dimensional spin-orbit-coupled semiconductor Majorana wires

The excitation gap above the Majorana fermion (MF) modes at the ends of 1D topological superconducting (TS) semiconductor wires scales with the bulk quasiparticle gap E_{qp}. This gap, also called minigap, facilitates experimental detection of the pristine TS state and MFs at experimentally accessible temperatures T << E_{qp}. Here we show that the linear scaling of minigap with E_{qp} can fail in quasi-1D wires with multiple confinement bands when the applied Zeeman field is greater than or equal to about half of the confinement-induced bandgap. TS states in such wires have an approximate chiral symmetry supporting multiple near zero energy modes at each end leading to a minigap which can effectively vanish. We show that the problem of small minigap in such wires can be resolved by forcing the system to break the approximate chirality symmetry externally with a second Zeeman field. Although experimental signatures such as zero bias peak from the wire ends is suppressed by the second Zeeman field above a critical value, such a field is required in some important parameter regimes of quasi-1D wires to isolate the topological physics of end state MFs. We also discuss the crucial difference of our minigap calculations from the previously reported minigap results appropriate for idealized spinless p-wave superconductors and explain why the clustering of fermionic subgap states around the zero energy Majorana end state with increasing chemical potential seen in the latter system does not apply to the experimental TS states in spin-orbit coupled nanowires.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Probing a topological quantum critical point in semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures

Quantum ground states on the non-trivial side of a topological quantum critical point (TQCP) have unique properties that make them attractive candidates for quantum information applications. A recent example is provided by s-wave superconductivity on a semiconductor platform, which is tuned through a TQCP to a topological superconducting (TS) state by an external Zeeman field. Despite many attractive features of TS states, TQCPs themselves do not break any symmetries, making it impossible to distinguish the TS state from a regular superconductor in conventional bulk measurements. Here we show that for the semiconductor TQCP this problem can be overcome by tracking suitable bulk transport properties across the topological quantum critical regime itself. The universal low-energy effective theory and the scaling form of the relevant susceptibilities also provide a useful theoretical framework in which to understand the topological transitions in semiconductor heterostructures. Based on our theory, specific bulk measurements are proposed here in order to characterize the novel TQCP in semiconductor heterostructures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Topological thermoelectric effects in spin-orbit coupled electron and hole doped semiconductors

We compute the intrinsic contributions to the Berry-phase mediated anomalous Hall and Nernst effects in electron- and hole-doped semiconductors in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field as well as Rashba and Dresselhaus spin orbit couplings. For both systems we find that the regime of chemical potential which supports the topological superconducting state in the presence of superconducting proximity effect can be characterized by plateaus in the topological Hall and Nernst coefficients flanked by well-defined peaks marking the emergence of the topological regime. The plateaus arise from a clear momentum space separation between the region where the Berry curvature is peaked (at the `near-band-degeneracy' points) and the region where the single (or odd number of) Fermi surface lies in the Brillouin zone. The plateau for the Nernst coefficient is at vanishing magnitudes surrounded by two peaks of opposite signs as a function of the chemical potential. These results could be useful for experimentally deducing the chemical potential regime suitable for realizing topological states in the presence of proximity effect.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Hole-doped semiconductor nanowire on top of an s-wave superconductor: A new and experimentally accessible system for Majorana fermions

Majorana fermions were envisioned by E. Majorana in 1935 to describe neutrinos. Recently it has been shown that they can be realized even in a class of electron-doped semiconductors, on which ordinary s-wave superconductivity is proximity induced, provided the time reversal symmetry is broken by an external Zeeman field above a threshold. Here we show that in a hole-doped semiconductor nanowire the threshold Zeeman field for Majorana fermions can be very small for some magic values of the hole density. In contrast to the electron-doped systems, smaller Zeeman fields and much stronger spin-orbit coupling and effective mass of holes allow the hole-doped systems to support Majorana fermions in a parameter regime which is routinely realized in current experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗