Speaker
Prof.
Alexander Altland
(Cologne University, Germany)
Description
Abstract: In this talk, we will briefly review recent progress
in realizing Majorana fermion bound states in condensed
matter devices. We will motivate a structure comprising
semiconductor quantum wires coupled to a superconductor,
and to external leads as the most generic device
architecture realizing Majorana fermion transport by current
date technology. In the main part of the talk we will discuss
how a conspiracy of topological correlations and electrostatic
interaction drive such 'Majorana quantum dots' to a fixed
point fundamentally different from an ordinary Fermi liquid
fixed point. At strong coupling, the system exhibits
unconventional transport behavior and non-Fermi liquid
correlations which make it distinct from any conventional
quantum electronic device. We will close by discussing
possible extensions of the elementary Kondo cell to more
complex architectures.