Ettingshausen effect due to Majorana modes
Creators
- 1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521 (United States)
- 2. Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- 3. School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 837 State Street, Atlanta, GA 30332 (United States)
Description
The presence of Majorana zero-energy modes at vortex cores in a topological superconductor implies that each vortex carries an extra entropy s0, given by (kB/2)ln 2, that is independent of temperature. By utilizing this special property of Majorana modes, the edges of a topological superconductor can be cooled (or heated) by the motion of the vortices across the edges. As vortices flow in the transverse direction with respect to an external imposed supercurrent, due to the Lorentz force, a thermoelectric effect analogous to the Ettingshausen effect is expected to occur between opposing edges. We propose an experiment to observe this thermoelectric effect, which could directly probe the intrinsic entropy of Majorana zero-energy modes. (paper)
Availability note (English)
Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/14/10/105005Additional details
Identifiers
Publishing Information
- Journal Title
- New Journal of Physics
- Journal Volume
- 14
- Journal Issue
- 10
- Journal Page Range
- [17 p.]
- ISSN
- 1367-2630
INIS
- Country of Publication
- United Kingdom
- Country of Input or Organization
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- INIS RN
- 44046891
- Subject category
- S71: CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; S75: CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY;
- Descriptors DEI
- ENTROPY; ETTINGHAUSEN EFFECT; LORENTZ FORCE; MAJORANA THEORY; SUPERCONDUCTORS; TOPOLOGY; VORTEX FLOW
- Descriptors DEC
- FLUID FLOW; MATHEMATICS; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES