Minimal Zeeman field requirement for a topological transition in superconductors

Submission summary

 As Contributors: Anton Akhmerov · Kim Pöyhönen · Daniel Varjas · Michael Wimmer Arxiv Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.08263v3 (pdf) Code repository: https://zenodo.org/record/4276247 Date accepted: 2021-05-07 Date submitted: 2021-03-02 13:32 Submitted by: Pöyhönen, Kim Submitted to: SciPost Physics Academic field: Physics Specialties: Condensed Matter Physics - Theory Approach: Theoretical

Abstract

Platforms for creating Majorana quasiparticles rely on superconductivity and breaking of time-reversal symmetry. By studying continuous deformations to known trivial states, we find that the relationship between superconducting pairing and time reversal breaking imposes rigorous bounds on the topology of the system. Applying these bounds to $s$-wave systems with a Zeeman field, we conclude that a topological phase transition requires that the Zeeman energy at least locally exceed the superconducting pairing by the energy gap of the full Hamiltonian. Our results are independent of the geometry and dimensionality of the system.

Published as SciPost Phys. 10, 108 (2021)

Dear editor,

We have reviewed and addressed the referee evaluations. We thank both referees for their feedback. The first referee considers the main results of our work not new. This is an unfortunate misunderstanding of our paper, as also seen from the report by the second referee and the references to our work in the recent literature. In the resubmitted version we have rewritten the introduction to clearer present the physics problem we have addressed, and we have clearly stated the new results. We expect that together with our response to the referee, this will be sufficient to change the referee's opinion.

List of changes

Extended the introduction and section 4 to clarify physical motivation; included a schematic figure. Expanded the Conclusions section to better detail some of the implications of the manuscript.