Hunting Majorana Fermions in Kitaev Magnets

Understand

A Majorana fermion is a fermionic particle that is its own antiparticle.

• Since the theoretical discovery in 1937, the exotic particle has long been searched in particle physics.
• In the last few decades, however, it has attracted renewed interest in condensed matter physics, where it can be realized as an elementary excitation (quasiparticle) in quantum states of matter.
• In this review, we discuss another platform for Majorana fermions, the quantum spin liquid, in which interacting magnetic moments remain disordered down to the lowest temperature under strong quantum fluctuations.