Competition between superconductivity and topological Kondo effect in Majorana devices

by Dr Francesco Buccheri (Institut für Theoretische Physik, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf)

Tuesday 9 Jan 2018, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Teorici (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia)

I will introduce a simple device featuring competition between superconductivity and multi-channel Kondo physics. Under specific conditions, a mesoscopic island can host a set of zero-energy Majorana modes, localized at the ends of a set of one-dimensional topological superconductors. A spin degree of freedom can then be nonlocally defined in terms of the associated degenerate states. Connecting the island to external wires via tunnel-coupling provides a realization of the so-called topological Kondo model. I will present the effect of pairing interactions in the external leads on the low- temperature physics and on the Josephson current between the external wires.