Majorana fermions on the Abrikosov flux lattice in a $p_x+ip_y$ superconductor and thermal conductivity in superclean regime

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a periodic Abrikosov vortex lattice in a chiral p-wave superconductor hosts zero-energy Majorana fermion states, which influence thermal conductivity and are robust against lattice disorder.

Contribution

It reveals the existence of zero-energy Majorana modes on vortex lattices in chiral p-wave superconductors and discusses their impact on thermal transport properties.

Findings

Zero modes appear at the Fermi level in vortex lattice bands.

Zero modes are robust against vortex position fluctuations.

Thermal conductivity is affected by these zero-energy states.

Abstract

We show that periodic lattice of Abrikosov vortices in chiral $p$ wave superconductor in general supports fermionic states with zero energy provided the intervortex distance is smaller than the critical one. The zero modes appear at the intersection with the Fermi level of electronic magnetic Bloch bands formed by the overlapping vortex core states. The Bloch bands are robust against lattice disorder induced by fluctuations of vortex positions and can transmit the energy flow across the lattice. The hallmark of zero modes on Bloch bands in electronic heat conductivity is discussed.