graduate

Majoranas in wire networks - theory and experiment

TYPEColloquium
Speaker:Professor Yuval Oreg
Affiliation:The Weizmann Institute, Department of Condensed Matter
Date:31.12.2012
Time:14:30
Location:Lidow Rosen Auditorium (323)
Abstract:Topological quantum computation provides an elegant way around decoherence,
as one encodes quantum information in a nonlocal fashion that the environment
finds difficult to corrupt. Zero energy Majorana Fermion states (Majorans for
short) emerges as a key concept for a realization of nonlocal encoding. In this talk
we will discuss what are Majoranas? What makes them nonlocal? and how one
may create and manipulate them. In particular we will discuss recipes for driving
semiconducting wires into a topological phase supporting Majoranas, and their
recent possible experimental observation. In this setting Majoarans can be transported,
created, and fused by applying locally tunable gates to the wire. More importantly, we will
show that networks of such wires allow braiding of Majoranas fermions and that they
exhibit non-Abelian statistics like vortices in a p+ip superconductor.