A proposal to probe quantum non-locality of Majorana fermions in tunneling experiments

Understand

Topological Majorana fermion (MF) quasiparticles have been recently suggested to exist in semiconductor quantum wires with proximity induced superconductivity and a Zeeman field.

• Although the experimentally observed zero bias tunneling peak and a fractional ac-Josephson effect can be taken as necessary signatures of MFs, neither of them constitutes a sufficient "smoking gun" experiment.
• Since one pair of Majorana fermions share a single conventional fermionic degree of freedom, MFs are in a sense fractionalized excitations.
• Based on this fractionalization we propose a tunneling experiment that furnishes a nearly unique signature of end state MFs in semiconductor quantum wires.