The topical group “Topological Systems” focuses on investigations of topological concepts in condensed matter systems and the creation, detection and manipulation of topologically protected excitations. Patrik Recher, who is leading the topical group, and his team have recently published two articles in the journal Physical Review B, which were picked as Editors' Suggestions:
Photonic cross-noise spectroscopy of Majorana bound states
L. Bittermann, F. Dominguez, and P. Recher
Phys. Rev. B 110, 045429
Distinguishing Majorana bound states (MBSs) from trivial states remains challenging. The authors propose a new route to probe two fundamental properties of MBSs using optically active quantum dots coupled to MBSs embedded in a 𝑝𝑛𝑝 setup. The presence of a nonlocal superconducting order parameter enables the emission of two correlated photons, whose polarization-resolved cross-noise provides direct information on the pairing spin texture and the number of MBSs, thus differentiating a trivial scenario from a topological one.
Effects of spin-orbit coupling in a valley chiral kagome network
P. Wittig, F. Dominguez, and P. Recher
Phys. Rev. B 109, 245429
Chern mosaic systems exhibit weakly protected chiral modes propagating in the bulk of the material. This novel phase of matter has recently been found in twisted bilayer graphene and double-aligned graphene-hexagonal boron nitride. The authors investigate the spectrum and transport properties of a valley chiral kagome scattering network. The interplay of the network geometry, magnetic field, and spin-orbit coupling gives rise to peculiar interference phenomena, including a sizable zero-field spin polarization of the conductance.
