Majorana Fermions: The race continues

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent efforts to detect and manipulate Majorana fermions in solid state devices, highlighting promising hints but emphasizing the lack of definitive evidence so far.

Contribution

It provides a critical overview tailored for non-specialists, summarizing experimental progress and challenges in Majorana fermion research.

Findings

Experiments show tantalizing hints of Majorana fermions.

No definitive evidence has been established yet.

Solid state devices remain promising platforms.

Abstract

A critical overview is given, aimed at non-specialist audience, of the recent efforts to detect and manipulate Majorana fermions in solid state devices. It is argued that the experiments on semiconductor quantum wires proximity coupled to superconducting leads present tantalizing hints but not a definitive evidence for these elusive particles.