Landau Levels of Majorana Fermions in a Spin Liquid

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

Abstract

Majorana fermions, originally proposed as elementary particles acting as their own antiparticles, can be realized in condensed-matter systems as emergent quasiparticles, a situation often accompanied by topological order. Here we propose a physical system which realizes Landau levels - highly degenerate single-particle states usually resulting from an orbital magnetic field acting on charged particles - for Majorana fermions. This is achieved in a variant of a quantum spin system due to Kitaev which is distorted by triaxial strain. This strained Kitaev model displays a spin-liquid phase with charge-neutral Majorana-fermion excitations whose spectrum corresponds to that of Landau levels, here arising from a tailored pseudomagnetic field. We show that measuring the dynamic spin susceptibility reveals the Landau-level structure by a remarkable mechanism of probe-induced bound-state formation.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer167201
FachzeitschriftPhysical review letters
Jahrgang116
Ausgabenummer16
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 21 Apr. 2016
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Schlagworte

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete