Pairing Obstructions in Topological Superconductors

ORAL

Abstract

The modern understanding of topological insulators is based on Wannier obstructions in position space. This insight suggests that there should also be a position space perspective on topological superconductors. For a proximitized nanowire, I will explain in what sense particle-hole symmetry implies that Cooper pairs are weakly paired in the topological phase. At the same time, this regime is captured by a quantized separation of Majorana pairing centers from the atomic positions. I will apply our results to diagnose second-order topological superconductors in two dimensions. Our work establishes a vantage point for the generalization of topological quantum chemistry to superconductivity.

*We acknowledge support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number: 200021_169061), the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958, and the Heising-Simons Foundation. This project has furthermore received funding from the European Research Council under the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC-StG-Neupert- 757867-PARATOP).

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Presenters

  • Frank Schindler

    • Princeton University
    • University of Zurich

Authors

  • Frank Schindler

    • Princeton University
    • University of Zurich

  • Barry Bradlyn

    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • Department of Physics, University of Illinois
    • Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
    • Department of Physics and Institute for Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaigm

  • Mark Fischer

    • Universität Zürich
    • Univ of Zurich
    • University of Zurich
    • Department of Physics, University of Zurich

  • Titus Neupert

    • University of Zurich
    • Universität Zürich
    • Department of Physics, University of Zurich
    • Univ of Zurich
    • Physics, University of Zurich