Paper detail

Magneto-Josephson effects and Majorana bound states in quantum wires

A prominent signature of Majorana bound states is the exotic Josephson effects they produce, the classic example being a fractional Josephson current with 4πperiodicity in the phase difference across the junction. Recent work established that topological insulator edges support a novel `magneto-Josephson effect', whereby a dissipationless current exhibits 4π-periodic dependence also on the relative orientation of the Zeeman fields in the two banks of the junction. Here, we explore the magneto-Josephson effect in junctions based on spin-orbit coupled quantum wires. In contrast to the topological insulator case, the periodicities of the magneto-Josephson effect no longer follow from an exact superconductor-magnetism duality of the Hamiltonian. We employ numerical calculations as well as analytical arguments to identify the domain configurations that display exotic Josephson physics for quantum-wire junctions, and elucidate the characteristic differences with the corresponding setups for topological insulators edges. To provide guidance to experiments, we also estimate the magnitude of the magneto-Josephson effects in realistic parameter regimes, and compare the Majorana-related contribution to the coexisting 2π-periodic effects emerging from non-Majorana states.