Ever-present Majorana bound state in a generic one-dimensional superconductor with odd number of Fermi surfaces

TL;DR

This paper proves that in a broad class of one-dimensional superconductors with an odd number of Fermi surfaces, a Majorana bound state always exists at the boundary, regardless of microscopic details or boundary conditions.

Contribution

It provides a general, symmetry-based theoretical framework demonstrating the universal presence of Majorana bound states in such systems, including effects of Fermi-point mismatch.

Findings

Majorana bound states exist for all systems with odd Fermi surfaces in the gapped phase.

Boundary conditions do not prevent Majorana states as long as charge-conjugation symmetry is preserved.

Fermi-point mismatch does not eliminate the Majorana bound state once the bulk gap is open.

Abstract

A quasi-1D superconductor with odd number of Fermi surfaces is expected to exhibit a nondegenerate Majorana bound state at the Fermi level at its boundary with an insulator (where the latter could be an actual insulator material or vacuum, for a terminated sample). Previous explicit theoretical demonstrations of this property were done for specific microscopic models of the bulk Hamiltonian and, most importantly, of the boundary. In this work, we theoretically demonstrate that this property holds for the whole class of systems, using the symmetry-based formalism of low-energy continuum models and general boundary conditions. We derive the general form of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes low-energy Hamiltonian that is subject only to charge-conjugation symmetry $\mathcal{C}_+$ of the type $\mathcal{C}_+^2=+1$ and a few minimal assumptions. Crucially, we also derive the most general form of the boundary conditions describing the boundary with an insulator, subject only to the fundamental principle of the probability-current conservation and $\mathcal{C}_+$ symmetry. Such {\em normal-reflection} boundary conditions do not contain scattering between electrons and holes. We find that for odd number of Fermi surfaces a Majorana bound state always exists as long as the bulk is in the gapped superconducting state, irrespective of the parameters of the bulk Hamiltonian and boundary conditions. Importantly, our general model includes a possible {\em Fermi-point mismatch}, when the two Fermi points are not at exactly opposite momenta, which disfavors superconductivity. We find that the Fermi-point mismatch does {\em not} have a direct destructive effect on the Majorana bound state, in the sense that once the bulk gap is opened the bound state is always present.