Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW B
Volume 90, Issue 16, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.90.165106
Keywords
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Funding
- NSF [DMR-1341822, DMR/MPS1006549]
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Sherman Fairchild Foundation
- Caltech Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, an NSF Physics Frontiers Center
- family of Jean J. Dixon
- Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics at Caltech
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1341822] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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One-dimensional topological phases can host localized zero-energy modes that enable high-fidelity storage and manipulation of quantum information. Majorana fermion chains support a classic example of such a phase, having zero modes that guarantee twofold degeneracy in all eigenstates up to exponentially small finite-size corrections. Chains of parafermions-generalized Majorana fermions-also support localized zero modes, but, curiously, only under much more restricted circumstances. We shed light on the enigmatic zero-mode stability in parafermion chains by analytically and numerically studying the spectrum and developing an intuitive physical picture in terms of domain-wall dynamics. Specifically, we show that even if the system resides in a gapped topological phase with an exponentially accurate ground-state degeneracy, higher-energy states can exhibit a splitting that scales as a power law with system size, categorically ruling out exact localized zero modes. The transition to power-law behavior is described by critical behavior appearing exclusively within excited states.
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