Probing the non-locality of Majorana fermions via quantum correlations

被引:24
作者
Li, Jun [1 ,2 ]
Yu, Ting [3 ,4 ]
Lin, Hai-Qing [1 ]
You, J. Q. [1 ]
机构
[1] Beijing Computat Sci Res Ctr, Beijing 100084, Peoples R China
[2] Dezhou Univ, Coll Phys & Elect Engn, Dezhou 253023, Peoples R China
[3] Stevens Inst Technol, Ctr Controlled Quantum Syst, Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA
[4] Stevens Inst Technol, Dept Phys & Engn Phys, Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA
基金
中国国家自然科学基金;
关键词
SUPERCONDUCTOR; ENTANGLEMENT;
D O I
10.1038/srep04930
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Majorana fermions (MFs) are exotic particles that are their own anti-particles. Recently, the search for the MFs occurring as quasi-particle excitations in solid-state systems has attracted widespread interest, because of their fundamental importance in fundamental physics and potential applications in topological quantum computation based on solid-state devices. Here we study the quantum correlations between two spatially separate quantum dots induced by a pair of MFs emerging at the two ends of a semiconductor nanowire, in order to develop a new method for probing the MFs. We find that without the tunnel coupling between these paired MFs, quantum entanglement cannot be induced from an unentangled (i.e., product) state, but quantum discord is observed due to the intrinsic nonlocal correlations of the paired MFs. This finding reveals that quantum discord can indeed demonstrate the intrinsic non-locality of the MFs formed in the nanowire. Also, quantum discord can be employed to discriminate the MFs from the regular fermions. Furthermore, we propose an experimental setup to measure the onset of quantum discord due to the nonlocal correlations. Our approach provides a new, and experimentally accessible, method to study the Majorana bound states by probing their intrinsic non-locality signature.
引用
收藏
页数:6
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