Even–odd parity effects in Majorana junctions

Abstract

We study a general Majorana junction, where N helical nanowires are connected to a common s-wave superconductor proximity-inducing Majorana bound states in the wires. The normal part of each wire ( j = 1,…, N ) acts as connected lead, where electrons can tunnel into the respective Majorana state γ _A _, _j . The Majorana states at the other end, γ _B _, _j , are coupled to each other by an arbitrary tunnel matrix. We examine the conditions for even–odd parity effects in the tunnel conductance for various junction topologies.