Issue |
EPL
Volume 96, Number 1, October 2011
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 17002 | |
Number of page(s) | 5 | |
Section | Condensed Matter: Electronic Structure, Electrical, Magnetic and Optical Properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/96/17002 | |
Published online | 13 September 2011 |
Zero-energy Majorana modes in spin ladders and a possible realization of the Kitaev model
1
The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics - 34100, Trieste, Italy, EU
2
Center of Condensed Matter Physics, ITP, Ilia University - 0162, Tbilisi, Georgia
3
Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973-5000, USA
Received:
8
June
2011
Accepted:
12
August
2011
We show that in double-chain Mott insulators (ladders), disordered alternating ionic potentials may locally destroy coherence of magnetic excitations and lead to the appearance of spontaneously dimerized islands inside the Haldane spin-liquid phase. We argue that a boundary between the dimerized and Haldane phases of a spin-1/2 ladder supports a localized zero-energy Majorana fermion mode. Based on these findings we suggest a realization of a generalized Kitaev model where Majorana fermions can propagate in more than one dimension.
PACS: 75.10.Pq – Spin chain models / 75.10.Jm – Quantized spin models, including quantum spin frustration
© EPLA, 2011
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