Deterministic creation and braiding of chiral edge vortices

TL;DR

This paper proposes a fully electrical, deterministic method to braid chiral edge vortices in superconductors, enabling the demonstration of non-Abelian statistics of Majorana zero-modes through measurable charge fusion signals.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, real-space braiding scheme using chiral edge vortices and bulk Majorana modes, allowing for direct electrical detection of their non-Abelian braiding.

Findings

Edge vortices are created on demand via voltage pulses.

Braiding with bulk Majoranas produces measurable charge signals.

The method enables deterministic, electrical control of vortex braiding.

Abstract

Majorana zero-modes in a superconductor are midgap states localized in the core of a vortex or bound to the end of a nanowire. They are anyons with non-Abelian braiding statistics, but when they are immobile one cannot demonstrate this by exchanging them in real space and indirect methods are needed. As a real-space alternative, we propose to use the chiral motion along the boundary of the superconductor to braid a mobile vortex in the edge channel with an immobile vortex in the bulk. The measurement scheme is fully electrical and deterministic: edge vortices ($\pi$-phase domain walls) are created on demand by a voltage pulse at a Josephson junction and the braiding with a Majorana zero-mode in the bulk is detected by the charge produced upon their fusion at a second Josephson junction.