Majorana modes in helical altermagnet without net magnetism and spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

We propose a scheme to realize topological superconductor and Majorana bound states (MBSs) in a one-dimensional metal nanowire on the surface of a helical altermagnet and in proximity to an s-wave superconductor, removing the requirement of conventional spin-orbit coupling and net magnetism. Through gauge transformation, we demonstrate that the helical frame naturally induces spin-momentum locking while the altermagnetism breaks time-reversal symmetry. The topological superconducting phase is well tuned by chemical potential, altermagnet strength, and helical frequency. Besides, our transport calculation results reveal quantized conductance signatures: a 2e2/h zero-bias peak at nanowire ends and a 4e2/h tunneling conductance at the domain wall of nanowires with opposite chirality, detected via metal lead and scanning tunneling microscopy, respectively. Our research offers new perspectives on finding MBSs.