Search results for "Majorana"
showing 10 items of 174 documents
Coherent coupling between vortex bound states and magnetic impurities in 2D layered superconductors
2021
Bound states in superconductors are expected to exhibit a spatially resolved electron-hole asymmetry which is the hallmark of their quantum nature. This asymmetry manifests as oscillations at the Fermi wavelength, which is usually tiny and thus washed out by thermal broadening or by scattering at defects. Here we demonstrate theoretically and confirm experimentally that, when coupled to magnetic impurities, bound states in a vortex core exhibit an emergent axial electron-hole asymmetry on a much longer scale, set by the coherence length. We study vortices in 2H-NbSe2 and in 2H-NbSe1.8S0.2 with magnetic impurities, characterizing these with detailed Hubbard-corrected density functional calcu…
Evolution of topological superconductivity by orbital-selective confinement in oxide nanowires
2019
We determine the optimal conditions to achieve topological superconducting phases having spin-singlet pairing for a planar nanowire with finite lateral width in the presence of an in-plane external magnetic field. We employ a microscopic description that is based on a three-band electronic model including both the atomic spin-orbit coupling and the inversion asymmetric potential at the interface between oxide band-gap insulators. We consider amplitudes of the pairing gap, spin-orbit interactions and electronic parameters that are directly applicable to nanowires of LaAlO$_3$-SrTiO$_3$. The lateral confinement introduces a splitting of the $d$-orbitals that alters the orbital energy hierarch…
Effect of disorder on Majorana localization in topological superconductors: a quasiclassical approach
2020
Two-dimensional (2D) topological superconductors (TS) host chiral Majorana modes (MMs) localized at the boundaries. In this work, we study the effect of disorder on the localization length of MMs in two-dimensional spin-orbit (SO) coupled superconductors within quasiclassical approximation. We find nonmonotonic behavior of the Majorana localization length as a function of disorder strength. At weak disorder, the Majorana localization length decreases with an increasing disorder strength. Decreasing the disorder scattering time below a crossover value ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}$, the Majorana localization length starts to increase. The crossover scattering time depends on the relative magnitud…
Searches for heavy neutrinos from Z decays
1992
We have searched for possible fourth family heavy neutrinos, pair produced in Z0 decays, in a sample of about 112 000 hadronic Z0 final states collected with the DELPHI detector. For all mixing matrix elements we exclude a new Dirac neutrino lighter than 44.5 GeV at a 95% confidence level, if the neutrino couples to the electron or muon family, and lighter than 44.0 GeV, if the neutrino couples to the tau family. Depending on the values of the mixing element and to which lepton family the neutrino couples, we obtain mass limits up to 46.2 GeV. For all mixing matrix elements we exclude a new Majorana neutrino lighter than 39.0 GeV, if it couples to the electron or the muon family, and lighte…
New high-sensitivity searches for neutrons converting into antineutrons and/or sterile neutrons at the HIBEAM/NNBAR experiment at the European Spalla…
2021
Abstract The violation of baryon number, B , is an essential ingredient for the preferential creation of matter over antimatter needed to account for the observed baryon asymmetry in the Universe. However, such a process has yet to be experimentally observed. The HIBEAM/NNBAR program is a proposed two-stage experiment at the European Spallation Source to search for baryon number violation. The program will include high-sensitivity searches for processes that violate baryon number by one or two units: free neutron–antineutron oscillation ( n → n ̄ ) via mixing, neutron–antineutron oscillation via regeneration from a sterile neutron state ( n → [ n ′ , n ̄ ′ ] → n ̄ ), and neutron disappearan…
Beta-spectrum shapes of forbidden β decays
2018
The neutrinoless [Formula: see text] decay of atomic nuclei continues to attract fervent interest due to its potential to confirm the possible Majorana nature of the neutrino, and thus the nonconservation of the lepton number. At the same time, the direct dark matter experiments are looking for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) through their scattering on nuclei. The neutrino-oscillation experiments on reactor antineutrinos base their analyses on speculations of [Formula: see text]-spectrum shapes of nuclear decays, thus leading to the notorious “reactor antineutrino anomaly.” In all these experimental efforts, one encounters the problem of [Formula: see text]-spectrum shapes of…
Measuring nuclear reaction cross sections to extract information on neutrinoless double beta decay
2017
Neutrinoless double beta decay (0v\b{eta}\b{eta}) is considered the best potential resource to access the absolute neutrino mass scale. Moreover, if observed, it will signal that neutrinos are their own anti-particles (Majorana particles). Presently, this physics case is one of the most important research "beyond Standard Model" and might guide the way towards a Grand Unified Theory of fundamental interactions. Since the 0v\b{eta}\b{eta} decay process involves nuclei, its analysis necessarily implies nuclear structure issues. In the NURE project, supported by a Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), nuclear reactions of double charge-exchange (DCE) are used as a tool to extr…
Theoretical study of neutrino scattering off the stable even Mo isotopes at low and intermediate energies
2011
A systematic study of the cross sections of neutral-current neutrino scattering off the stable even Mo isotopes (mass number A = 92, 94, 96, 98, 100), at low and intermediate neutrino energies (E(nu) <= 130 MeV), is presented and discussed. The required wave functions for the initial (ground state) and all accessible final nuclear states are constructed in the context of the quasi-particle random-phase approximation (QRPA) and tested against data on the low-lying energy spectra of the isotopes in question. The individual contributions coming from the polar-vector and axial-vector components of the hadronic current for the coherent and incoherent channels of each isotope are investigated. Th…
LeptoGen-koodi
2021
LeptoGen is a software package for numerically solving (resonant) leptogenesis equations including full flavour coherence information for the Majorana neutrinos. The package is written in Wolfram Language and can be run in the Mathematica front end. (Tested in Mathematica 12.0.) For usage license, see the attachment.
Quantum memories with zero-energy Majorana modes and experimental constraints
2016
In this work we address the problem of realizing a reliable quantum memory based on zero-energy Majorana modes in the presence of experimental constraints on the operations aimed at recovering the information. In particular, we characterize the best recovery operation acting only on the zero-energy Majorana modes and the memory fidelity that can be therewith achieved. In order to understand the effect of such restriction, we discuss two examples of noise models acting on the topological system and compare the amount of information that can be recovered by accessing either the whole system, or the zero-modes only, with particular attention to the scaling with the size of the system and the e…