Interaction-driven topological superconductivity in one dimension

Arbel Haim; Konrad Wölms; Erez Berg; Yuval Oreg; Karsten Flensberg

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.94.115124

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Interaction-driven topological superconductivity in one dimension

Arbel Haim, Konrad Wölms, Erez Berg, Yuval Oreg, Karsten Flensberg

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.94.115124 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

We study one-dimensional topological superconductivity in the presence of time-reversal symmetry. This phase is characterized by having a bulk gap, while supporting a Kramers' pair of zero-energy Majorana bound states at each of its ends. We present a general simple model which is driven into this topological phase in the presence of repulsive electron-electron interactions. We further propose two experimental setups and show that they realize this model at low energies. The first setup is a narrow two-dimensional topological insulator partially covered by a conventional s-wave superconductor, and the second is a semiconductor wire in proximity to an s-wave superconductor. These systems can therefore be used to realize and probe the time-reversal invariant topological superconducting phase. The effect of interactions is studied using both a mean-field approach and a renormalization group analysis.