Squeezing light with Majorana fermions

TL;DR

This paper explores how coupling a semiconducting nanowire to a microwave cavity can reveal Majorana fermions through cavity frequency shifts and nonlinear effects like light squeezing, providing experimental signatures of these exotic states.

Contribution

It demonstrates how cavity quantum electrodynamics can be used to detect and characterize Majorana fermions via their influence on cavity properties.

Findings

Majorana fermions induce measurable cavity frequency shifts.

Presence of Majorana states enhances cavity nonlinearity and light squeezing.

Cavity response depends on nanowire gate voltages, revealing Majorana properties.

Abstract

Coupling a semiconducting nanowire to a microwave cavity provides a powerfull means to assess the presence or absence of isolated Majorana fermions in the nanowire. These exotic bound states can cause a significant cavity frequency shift but also a strong cavity nonlinearity leading for instance to light squeezing. The dependence of these effects on the nanowire gate voltages gives direct signatures of the unique properties of Majorana fermions, such as their self-adjoint character and their exponential confinement.