Floquet Majorana and Para-Fermions in Driven Rashba Nanowires

TL;DR

This paper explores how periodic driving in Rashba nanowires can host Majorana and parafermion zero modes, offering new ways to realize topological phases without fine-tuning or superconductivity.

Contribution

It introduces two setups for topological phases in driven nanowires, one without superconductivity and one with, highlighting the role of magnetic fields and interactions.

Findings

Identification of topological regimes with Majorana fermions

Demonstration of parafermion modes due to strong interactions

Topological phases achievable without fine-tuning or superconductivity

Abstract

We study a periodically driven nanowire with Rashba-like conduction and valence bands in the presence of a magnetic field. We identify topological regimes in which the system hosts zero-energy Majorana fermions. We further investigate the effect of strong electron-electron interactions that give rise to parafermion zero energy modes hosted at the nanowire ends. The first setup we consider allows for topological phases by applying only static magnetic fields without the need of superconductivity. The second setup involves both superconductivity and time-dependent magnetic fields and allows one to generate topological phases without fine-tuning of the chemical potential. Promising candidate materials are graphene nanoribbons due to their intrinsic particle-hole symmetry.