Role of inter-edge tunneling in localizing Majorana zero modes at the ends of quasi one-dimensional p+ip systems

Abstract

Potter and Lee have demonstrated the presence of Majorana zero modes at the ends of quasi one-dimensional (1-D) p+ip superconductors. We use conformal field theory (CFT) methods to show that inter-edge tunneling of the vortex excitations along the length of the channel is crucial for such localization. We show that localization of Majorana modes occurs also in quasi 1-D channels of the 5/2 fractional quantum Hall (FQH) systems when modeled, following Moore and Read, as the p+ip paired state of composite fermions. We propose a tunnel-interferometry experiment to detect these modes, which should show a \pi -phase shift of oscillations depending on whether a localized Majorana zero mode is present or not, which, in turn, can be controlled by varying the tunneling strength.