Non-Abelian braiding of phonons in layered silicates

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• Bo Peng
• Wednesday 02 June 2021, 11:30-12:30
• Zoom.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Chuck Witt.

One of the most promising ideas for the realization of topological qubits relies on non-Abelian anyons. However, the extremely subtle conditions to detect the Majorana bound states hamper technologically relevant applications. Here we propose that phonons, a bosonic excitation, can realize momentum space braiding of band nodes that carry non-Abelian charges [1]. Different from electronic systems, phonons do not have the constraints placed by the Fermi-Dirac distribution that have so far prevented the experimental observation of multi-gap topologies in real materials. We find a promising material family, layered silicates that are ubiquitous in soils and minerals throughout the world, to study the non-Abelian braiding of phonons. The associated braiding process can be controlled by means of an electric field and epitaxial strain, and involves, for the first time, more than three bands. Finally, we propose that these conversion processes can be tracked by following the evolution of the Raman spectrum, providing a clear signature for the experimental verification of multi-gap topologies.

Reference: [1] B Peng, A Bouhon, B Monserrat, RJ Slager. Non-Abelian braiding of phonons in layered silicates. arXiv:2105.08733

This talk is part of the Electronic Structure Discussion Group series.

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