Dynamics of Majorana-based qubits operated with an array of tunable gates

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dynamics of Majorana zero modes in superconducting wires, using simulations to understand diabatic effects and qubit operation constraints, with a focus on a Rabi-oscillation protocol.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified Majorana-based simulation approach and analyzes qubit operation timescales in a Majorana wire system.

Findings

Diabatic corrections are well-described by Landau-Zener theory.

Constraints on qubit operation times are quantified.

Majorana representation simplifies superconducting system simulations.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of Majorana zero modes that are shuttled via local tuning of the electrochemical potential in a superconducting wire. By performing time-dependent simulations of microscopic lattice models, we show that diabatic corrections associated with the moving Majorana modes are quantitatively captured by a simple Landau-Zener description. We further simulate a Rabi-oscillation protocol in a specific qubit design with four Majorana zero modes in a single wire and quantify constraints on the timescales for performing qubit operations in this setup. Our simulations utilize a Majorana representation of the system, which greatly simplifies simulations of superconductors at the mean-field level.