Conformal energy currents on the edge of a topological superconductor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how energy currents at the edge of a topological superconductor, modeled by conformal field theory, can be used to identify topological phases and measure the central charge from a microscopic model at finite temperatures.

Contribution

It provides a microscopic analysis linking energy currents to conformal field theory predictions and shows their robustness as experimental probes of topological phases.

Findings

Energy current scaling reveals the conformal field theory's central charge.

Energy currents can distinguish different topological phases at finite temperatures.

The measurement of the central charge remains robust under disorder and boundary defects.

Abstract

The boundary of a 2D topological superconductor can be modeled by a conformal field theory. Here we demonstrate the behaviors of this high level description emerging from a microscopic model at finite temperatures. To achieve that, we analyze the low energy sector of Kitaev's honeycomb lattice model and probe its energy current. We observe that the scaling of the energy current with temperature reveals the central charge of the conformal field theory, which is in agreement with the Chern number of the bulk. Importantly, these currents can discriminate between distinct topological phases at finite temperatures. We assess the resilience of this measurement of the central charge under coupling disorder, bulk dimerisation and defects at the boundary, thus establishing it as a favorable means of experimentally probing topological superconductors.