Spatial Rabi oscillations between Majorana bound states and quantum dots

Abstract

Background: A Majorana bound state is a superconducting quasiparticle that is the superposition of particle and hole with equal amplitude. We propose a verification of this amplitude equality by analyzing the spatial Rabi oscillations of the quantum states of a quantum dot that is tunneling-coupled to the Majorana bound states.Results: We find two resonant Rabi driving energies that correspond to the energy splitting due to the coupling of two spatially separated Majorana bound states. The resulting Rabi oscillating frequencies from these two different resonant driving energies are identical for the Majorana bound states, while different for ordinary Andreev bound states. We further study a double-quantum-dot setup and find a nonlocal quantum correlation between them that is mediated by two Majorana bound states. This nonlocal correlation has the signature of additional resonant driving energies.Conclusion: Our method can be used to distinguish between Majorana bound states and Andreev bound states. It also gives a precise measurement of the energy splitting between two Majorana bound states.

Keywords

• Andreev bound state
• Majorana bound state
• nonlocal quantum correlation
• quantum dot
• spatial Rabi oscillation