Kitaev’s Chain Model and Majorana Zero Modes

Abstract

A Majorana Fermion (MF), defined as a particle that is its own anti-particle, can be engineered in the form of quasi-particles appearing in condensed matter systems. Majorana zero modes (MZMs), topologically protected zero-energy states, can exist at the topological phase boundary of one- or two-dimensional systems. These MZMs follow non-Abelian statistics and can be used as a building block for fault-tolerant quantum computers. Here, we introduce the conceptual development of MZMs based on Kitaev’s chain model and give a brief history of the experimental realization of MZMs.