Braiding with Majorana fermions

Abstract

In this paper we study a Clifford algebra generalization of the quaternions and its relationship with braid group representations related to Majorana fermions. The Fibonacci model for topological quantum computing is based on the fusion rules for a Majorana fermion. Majorana fermions can be seen not only in the structure of collectivies of electrons, as in the quantum Hall effect, but also in the structure of single electrons both by experiments with electrons in nanowires and also by the decomposition of the operator algebra for a fermion into a Clifford algebra generated by two Majorana operators. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these braiding representations, important for relationships among physics, quantum information and topology. A new result in this paper is the Clifford Braiding Theorem. This theorem shows that the Majorana operators give rise to a particularly robust representation of the braid group that is then further represented to find the phases of the fermions under their exchanges in a plane space. The more robust representation in our braiding theorem will be the subject of further work.