Manipulating Majorana fermions in one-dimensional spin-orbit coupled atomic Fermi gases

TL;DR

This paper proposes methods to manipulate Majorana fermions in one-dimensional spin-orbit coupled ultracold Fermi gases, including moving and creating them via magnetic fields and impurities, with potential applications in quantum computing.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical scheme for controlling Majorana fermions in atomic gases, bridging solid-state concepts with ultracold atom systems.

Findings

Majorana fermions can be moved by tuning the effective Zeeman field.

A pair of Majorana fermions can be created using magnetic impurity potentials.

Experimental realization in $^{40}$K atomic gases is discussed.

Abstract

Majorana fermions are promising candidates for storing and processing information in topological quantum computation. The ability to control such individual information carriers in trapped ultracold atomic Fermi gases is a novel theme in quantum information science. However, fermionic atoms are neutral and thus are difficult to manipulate. Here, we theoretically investigate the control of emergent Majorana fermions in one-dimensional spin-orbit coupled atomic Fermi gases. We discuss (i) how to move Majorana fermions by increasing or decreasing an effective Zeeman field, which acts like a solid state control voltage gate; and (ii) how to create a pair of Majorana fermions by adding a magnetic impurity potential. We discuss the experimental realization of our control scheme in an ultracold Fermi gas of $^{40}$K atoms.