Ettingshausen effect due to Majorana modes

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experiment to detect Majorana zero-energy modes in topological superconductors by observing a thermoelectric effect analogous to the Ettingshausen effect, caused by vortex motion and entropy transfer.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to probe Majorana modes through a thermoelectric effect induced by vortex dynamics in topological superconductors.

Findings

Majorana modes carry a quantized entropy of (k_B/2)ln 2 per vortex.

Vortex motion can induce measurable temperature gradients at superconductor edges.

Proposed experiment could directly measure the intrinsic entropy of Majorana zero modes.

Abstract

The presence of Majorana zero-energy modes at vortex cores in a topological superconductor implies that each vortex carries an extra entropy $s_0$, given by $(k_{B}/2)\ln 2$, that is independent of temperature. By utilizing this special property of Majorana modes, the edges of a topological superconductor can be cooled (or heated) by the motion of the vortices across the edges. As vortices flow in the transverse direction with respect to an external imposed supercurrent, due to the Lorentz force, a thermoelectric effect analogous to the Ettingshausen effect is expected to occur between opposing edges. We propose an experiment to observe this thermoelectric effect, which could directly probe the intrinsic entropy of Majorana zero-energy modes.