Niels Bohr Lecture by Carlo Beenakker

Majorana edge modes in topological superconductors

Carlo Beenakker has been professor in Leiden since 1991, where he's working at the Lorentz Institute for theoretical physics. 

Two-dimensional superconductors with broken time-reversal symmetry have been predicted to support topologically protected chiral edge states, providing a thermal analogue of the electrical quantum Hall effect in semiconductors.

Several decades of search for these edge states (notably in strontium ruthenate) have not yet produced convincing evidence for their existence. The key difficulty is that the edge states are charge neutral, and therefore would seem to be out reach of conventional electrical probes.

Here we discuss some recent developments in our understanding of the Majorana nature of the superconducting edge states, which suggests that shot noise measurements would provide for a purely electrical method of detection.

• Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at 15:15 in Aud. 3 at HCØ.

About Carlo Beenakker:

• Carlo Beenakker received his Ph.D. in 1984 from Leiden University and then worked for six years at the Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven.
• Since 1991 he is professor in Leiden, working at the Lorentz Institute for theoretical physics. His research on electrical conduction in nanostructures was distinguished with the Royal-Shell prize, the Spinoza prize, and the Akzo-Nobel Science Award.
• His current interests center around topological states of matter and topological quantum computation, supported by an ERC Synergy grant with his colleagues from Delft University of Technology.