Rotating Majorana zero modes in a disk geometry

We study the manipulation of Majorana zero modes in a thin disk made from a p-wave superconductor, in order to understand their use as a building block for topological quantum computers. We analyze the second-order topological corner modes that arise when an in-plane magnetic field is applied, and we calculate their dynamical evolution when rotating the magnetic field, with special emphasis on nonadiabatic effects. We characterize the phase transition between high-frequency and near-adiabatic evolution using Floquet analysis. We show that oscillations persist even in the adiabatic phase because of a frequency-independent coupling between zero modes and excited states, which we have quantified numerically and analytically. These results show that controlling the rotation frequency can be a simple method to avoid the nonadiabatic errors originated from this coupling and thus increase the robustness of topological quantum computation.

Automated summary

This article investigates the manipulation of Majorana zero modes in a thin film using a superconductor. The study analyzes nonadiabatic effects and proposes a method to increase the robustness of topological quantum computation by controlling the rotation frequency.