Disordered Kitaev chains with long-range pairing. (7th February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cai, Xiaoming
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 29:Number 11(2017)
• Publication Date: 2017-02-07
• Subjects: 1D p-wave superconductor -- long-range pairing -- Anderson localization -- topological phase transition; Condensed matter -- Periodicals; Matière condensée -- Périodiques; Vaste stoffen; Vloeistoffen; Natuurkunde; Electronic journals; Computer network resources; 530.4105
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/aa5a39
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0953-8984

Abstract

Abstract: We study the competition of disorder and superconductivity for a generalized Kitaev model in incommensurate potentials. The generalized Kitaev model describes one dimensional spinless fermions with long-range p-wave superconducting pairing, which decays with distance l as a power law ̃ 1 / l α . We focus on the transition from the topological superconducting phase to the topologically trivial Anderson localized phase, and effects of the exponent α on this phase transition. In the topological superconducting phase, for a system under open boundary condition the amplitude of zero-mode Majorana fermion has a hybrid exponential-algebraic decay as the distance increases from the edge. In the Anderson localized phase, some single-particle states remain critical for very strong disorders and the number of critical states increases as α decreases. In addition, except for critical disorders, the correlation function always has an exponential decay at the short range and an algebraic decay at the long range. Phase transition points are also numerically determined and the topological phase transition happens earlier at a smaller disorder strength for a system with smaller α .