The Origin of Aromaticity: Aromatic Compounds as Intrinsic Topological Superconductors with Majorana Fermion

TL;DR

This paper reveals that polyaromatic hydrocarbons are topological superconductors with Majorana states, reinterpreting aromaticity through topological concepts and suggesting new applications in quantum computing.

Contribution

It demonstrates that aromatic compounds like benzene are topological superconductors, linking aromaticity to topological invariants and Majorana fermions, which is a novel perspective.

Findings

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons are topological superconductors.

Aromaticity can be reinterpreted via topological invariants.

Potential application in quantum computing.

Abstract

Topological superconductors have been discovered with recent advances in understanding the topological properties of condensed matters. These states have a full pairing gap in the bulk and gapless counter-propagating Majorana states at the boundary. A pair of Majorana zero modes is associated with each vortex. This understanding had a great influence on the theory of superconductivity and their following experiments, but its relevantce to organic compounds was not closely observed. Here, we analyze the topological states of various polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including benzene, and reveal that they are topological superconductors. We have analyzed the momentum vectors of benzene and other PAHs through a semi-classical approach to confirm their non-trivial state. Their unique properties might be originated from the odd number of Kramers doublets in PAHs. The H\"uckel rule describing aromaticity can be reinterpreted with a topological viewpoint. It suggests that the (4n+2) rule can be split into two pairs of (2n+1) electrons each, namely, electrons and holes with spin up and down. Therefore, it always forms an odd number of Kramers` doublet. Moreover, n in the H\"uckel rule can be interpreted as the winding number in global next-nearest-neighbor(NNN) hopping. This work will re-establish the definition of aromaticity that has been known so far and extend the use of aromatic compounds as topological superconductors to quantum computers.