Spectroscopy of Majorana modes of non-Abelian vortices in Kitaev's chiral spin liquid

TL;DR

This paper investigates the temperature-dependent dynamical structure factor of Kitaev's chiral spin liquid, revealing signatures of Majorana modes linked to non-Abelian vortices through analytical methods.

Contribution

It provides a novel analytical approach to identify Majorana modes in the dynamical structure factor of the chiral spin liquid phase.

Findings

Discrete peaks in the structure factor indicate Majorana modes.

Thermally activated visons cause splitting of zero modes.

Majorana signatures persist despite weak non-integrable interactions.

Abstract

We study the temperature (T) dependence of the dynamical structure factor of the chiral spin liquid phase of Kitaev's honeycomb model. We find, using a recently developed analytical approach, direct signatures of the Majorana modes associated with the non-Abelian Z_2 vortices (visons). In particular, a characteristic multiplet of discrete peaks at low but nonzero-T and its field dependence reflect the existence of thermally activated visons whose varying separation yields different splittings of the Majorana `zero' modes. The resonant processes involved are specific to the Majorana modes, and will persist even in the presence of weak non-integrable interactions.