Majorana-like Josephson branch structure in one-dimensional transport of cold atoms
Abstract
We study phase-controlled transport through a one-dimensional channel of attractively interacting fermions connecting two three-dimensional BCS reservoirs. The competition between channel phase stiffness and pair tunnelling at the two contacts results in the emergence of two 4π-periodic families of stationary states, characterised by symmetric or asymmetric phase drops at the boundaries. Advancing the reservoir phase difference by 2π exchanges these families so that the equilibrium energy remains 2π periodic, while the 4π periodicity might be attained in a diabatic regime. This structure admits a formal description in terms of two boundary Majorana operators, combining into a nonlocal fermion mode. Renormalization-group analysis shows that quantum fluctuations and phase slips are suppressed in the zero-temperature thermodynamic limit, preserving the branch crossings. The predicted branch exchange, metastable currents, and sweep-rate-dependent switching provide experimentally testable signatures of Majorana-like Josephson branch physics in a gapless interacting channel.
Related
- Phase-Controlled Majorana Zero Modes in Altermagnetic Topological-Insulator Josephson Junctions
- Shapiro-step identifiability in YBCO Josephson weak links: A branch-paired reanalysis
- Transport theory for a generic two-arm co-propagating Majorana interferometer with Majorana fermion and edge vortex tunneling
- Shot noise signatures of Majorana-assisted transport in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer
- Collective excitation-mediated transport in nanoscale Josephson junctions that exhibit quantum confinement
BibTeX
@misc{whelan2026majoranalike,
title = {{Majorana-like Josephson branch structure in one-dimensional transport of cold atoms}},
author = {Rory Whelan and Dimitri M. Gangardt and Igor V. Lerner},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.06693},
eprint = {2611.06693},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06693},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Majorana-like Josephson branch structure in one-dimensional transport of cold atoms
AU - Rory Whelan
AU - Dimitri M. Gangardt
AU - Igor V. Lerner
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.06693
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06693
AB - We study phase-controlled transport through a one-dimensional channel of attractively interacting fermions connecting two three-dimensional BCS reservoirs. The competition between channel phase stiffness and pair tunnelling at the two contacts results in the emergence of two 4π-periodic families of stationary states, characterised by symmetric or asymmetric phase drops at the boundaries. Advancing the reservoir phase difference by 2π exchanges these families so that the equilibrium energy remains 2π periodic, while the 4π periodicity might be attained in a diabatic regime. This structure admits a formal description in terms of two boundary Majorana operators, combining into a nonlocal fermion mode. Renormalization-group analysis shows that quantum fluctuations and phase slips are suppressed in the zero-temperature thermodynamic limit, preserving the branch crossings. The predicted branch exchange, metastable currents, and sweep-rate-dependent switching provide experimentally testable signatures of Majorana-like Josephson branch physics in a gapless interacting channel.
ER -