Effective Field Theory for a p-wave Superconductor in the Subgap Regime

TL;DR

This paper develops an effective field theory for 2D p-wave superconductors that accurately models topological properties, zero modes, and non-abelian vortex braiding, advancing understanding of topological quantum states.

Contribution

It introduces a novel effective field theory for 2D p-wave superconductors that captures topological features and vortex braiding statistics.

Findings

Faithfully describes bulk topological properties

Models subgap states at vortex cores and edges

Vortices exhibit non-abelian braiding statistics

Abstract

We construct an effective field theory for the 2d spineless p-wave paired superconductor that faithfully describes the topological properties of the bulk state, and also provides a model for the subgap states at vortex cores and edges. In particular it captures the topologically protected zero modes and has the correct ground state degeneracy on the torus. We also show that our effective field theory becomes a topological field theory in a well defined scaling limit and that the vortices have the expected non-abelian braiding statistics.