The energy-level statistics in the core of a vortex in a p-wave superconductor

Abstract

In the presence of strong disorder, the statistics of quasiparticle levels in the core of a vortex in a two-dimensional p-wave superconductor belongs to the universality class B corresponding to the ensemble of orthogonal matrices in odd dimensions. This novel universality class appears as a consequence of the O(2) spin symmetry of p-wave pairing. It is preserved in the presence of random disorder, of electromagnetic vector potential, and of an admixture of the pairing of opposite chirality in the vortex core, but may be destroyed by spin-orbit coupling and by Zeeman splitting.