Description
In this seminar, I discuss the problem of creating Majorana
zero modes in a cold-atom system, which is naturally
number-conserving, and without assuming the presence of a
superconductor.
I begin by presenting a model of interacting fermions in a
two-leg ladder supporting zero-energy Majorana edge modes.
The model has a quasi-exactly solvable line for all possible
densities of fermions described by a topologically
non-trivial ground state wave-function which can be fully
characterized.
In the second part of the seminar, I argue that all the
necessary ingredients for the appearance of Majorana zero
modes in number-conserving ladders are naturally present in
one-dimensional Ytterbium gases (and more generally in
earth-alkaline(-like) atomic gases), which are currently
studied in several state-of-the-art experiments. I support
the claim with extensive numerical simulations.
References:
[1] Iemini, Mazza, Rossini, Fazio, and Diehl, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 115, 156402 (2015).
[2] Iemini, Mazza, Fallani, Zoller, Fazio, and Dalmonte,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 200404 (2017).
