A recent paper by Giulia Venditti, Christoph Berthod, and Louk Rademaker reports the prediction of vortex-core Majorana zero modes (MZMs) carrying a nontrivial angular momentum.
The search for MZMs is of great importance, both for fundamental understanding and possible topological quantum computation.
In Phys. Rev. B 113, 014502 (2026), the authors study a modified Fu-Kane model featuring a d+id superconducting order parameter on the surface of a strong topological insulator. They found non-trivial spin and angular-momentum textures, that give rise to four distinct “flavors” of MZMs. These states are classified according to the winding of both the superconducting order parameter and the underlying normal, beyond the Chern-based classification. They also assess the stability and topological protection of these MZMs, as well as their possible experimental signatures.
Selected as an Editor’s Suggestion, the work provides a new path towards the study and engineering of MZMs for quantum computation.
Contact
Louk Rademaker
Professor
Department of Quantum Matter Physics
louk.rademaker@unige.ch
Article published in Phys. Rev. B 113, 014502 (2026)