Nonlocality of Majorana bound states revealed by electron waiting times in a topological Andreev interferometer

Abstract

The analysis of waiting times of electron transfers has recently become experimentally accessible owing to advances in noninvasive probes working in the short-time regime. We study electron waiting times in a topological Andreev interferometer: a superconducting loop with controllable phase difference connected to a quantum spin Hall edge, where the edge state helicity enables the transfer of electrons and holes into separate leads, with transmission controlled by the loop's phase difference $\phi$. This setup features gapless Majorana bound states at $\phi=\pi$. The waiting times for electron transfers across the junction are sensitive to the presence of the gapless states, but are uncorrelated for all $\phi$. By contrast, at $\phi=\pi$ the waiting times of Andreev-scattered holes show a strong correlation and the crossed (hole-electron) distributions feature a unique behavior. Both effects exclusively result from the nonlocal properties of Majorana bound states. Consequently, electron waiting times and their correlations could circumvent some of the challenges for detecting topological superconductivity and Majorana states beyond conductance signatures.