Topological Superconductivity and Superfluidity

TL;DR

This paper constructs and analyzes time reversal invariant topological superconductors and superfluids in 2D and 3D, revealing their boundary states, vortex zero modes, and emergent supersymmetry, with implications for experimental detection.

Contribution

It introduces new models of topological superconductors and superfluids with time reversal symmetry and explores their boundary states, vortex properties, and supersymmetry features.

Findings

Presence of gapless Majorana boundary states

Existence of Majorana zero modes at vortices

Emergent supersymmetry in the system

Abstract

We construct time reversal invariant topological superconductors and superfluids in two and three dimensions which are analogous to the recently discovered quantum spin Hall and three-d $Z_2$ topological insulators respectively. These states have a full pairing gap in the bulk, gapless counter-propagating Majorana states at the boundary, and a pair of Majorana zero modes associated with each vortex. We show that the time reversal symmetry naturally emerges as a supersymmetry, which changes the parity of the fermion number associated with each time-reversal invariant vortex. In the presence of external T-breaking fields, non-local topological correlation is established among these fields, which is an experimentally observable manifestation of the emergent supersymmetry.