Time reversal non-invariant non-Abelian topological order in non-centrosymmetric superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates non-Abelian topological order in non-centrosymmetric superconductors with mixed s-wave and p-wave pairing, revealing that the non-Abelian phase condition is independent of the p-wave amplitude and contrasting with time-reversal invariant phases.

Contribution

It derives the conditions for non-Abelian phases in non-centrosymmetric superconductors, showing independence from triplet pairing amplitude and connecting Pfaffian invariants to topological classification.

Findings

Non-Abelian phase condition is independent of p-wave amplitude.

Pfaffian of BdG Hamiltonian at k=0 relates to Z topological invariant.

Contrast with time-reversal invariant topological phases.

Abstract

We consider two-dimensional non-centrosymmetric superconductors, where the order parameter is a mixture of s-wave and p-wave parts, in the presence of an externally induced Zeeman splitting. We derive the conditions under which the system is in a non-Abelian phase. By considering the non-degenerate zero-energy Majorana solutions of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equations for a vortex and by constructing a topological invariant, we show that the condition for the non-Abelian phase to exist is completely independent of the triplet pairing amplitude. The existence condition for the non-Abelian phase derived from the real space solutions of the BdG equations involves the Pfaffian of the BdG Hamiltonian at k = 0, which is completely insensitive to the magnitude of the p-wave component of the order parameter. We arrive at the same conclusion by using the appropriate topological invariant for this case. This is in striking contrast to the analogous condition for the time-reversal invariant topological phases, in which the amplitude of the p-wave component must be larger than the amplitude of the s-wave piece of the order parameter. As a by-product, we establish the intrinsic connection between the Pfaffian of the BdG Hamiltonian at k = 0 (which arises at the BdG approach) and the relevant Z topological invariant.