Recent progress on non-Abelian anyons: from Majorana zero modes to topological Dirac fermionic modes

Majorana zero modes (MZMs) have been intensively studied in recent decades theoretically and experimentally as the most promising candidate for non-Abelian anyons supporting topological quantum computation (TQC). In addition to the Majorana scheme, some non-Majorana quasiparticles obeying non-Abelian statistics, including topological Dirac fermionic modes, have also been proposed and therefore become new candidates for TQC. In this review, we overview the non-Abelian braiding properties as well as the corresponding braiding schemes for both the MZMs and the topological Dirac fermionic modes, emphasizing the recent progress on topological Dirac fermionic modes. A topological Dirac fermionic mode can be regarded as a pair of MZMs related by unitary symmetry, which can be realized in a number of platforms, including the one-dimensional topological insulator, higher-order topological insulator, and spin superconductor. This topological Dirac fermionic mode possesses several advantages compared with its Majorana cousin, such as superconductivity-free and larger gaps. Therefore, it provides a new avenue for investigating non-Abelian physics and possible TQC.