Title: Unconventional Josephson Effect in Hybrid Superconductor-Topological Insulator Devices Authors: J. R. Williams, A. J. Bestwick, P. Gallagher, Seung Sae Hong, Y. Cui, Andrew S. Bleich, J. G. Analytis, I. R. Fisher, and D. Goldhaber-Gordon
We report on transport properties of Josephson junctions in hybrid superconducting-topological insulator devices, which show two striking departures from the common Josephson junction behaviour: a characteristic energy that scales inversely with the width of the junction, and a low characteristic magnetic field for suppressing supercurrent. To explain these effects, we propose a phenomenological model which expands on the existing theory for topological insulator Josephson junctions.
The world is posed at the edge of a new technological revolution that will make the strange and unique properties of quantum physics relevant and exploitable in the context of information science and technology. Many think the key to crossing into this new world of quantum computing is something called a Majorana fermion. Read more
Scientists think they may finally have seen evidence for a famously elusive quarry in particle physics. The Majorana fermion was first predicted 75 years ago - a particle that could be its own anti-particle. Now Dutch researchers, who have devised some exotic and minute circuitry to test for the Majorana's existence, believe their results show the fermion to be real. Read more
Title: A new CP violating observable for the LHC Authors: Joshua Berger, Monika Blanke, Yuval Grossman
We study a new type of CP violating observable that arises in three body decays of neutral particles, such as Majorana fermions. We consider decays that are dominated by an intermediate charged resonance. In general, for such decays, two diagrams exist in which the intermediate resonance carries opposite charge. The required CP-even phase arises due to the different virtualities of the resonance in each of the two diagrams. This method can be an important tool for accessing new CP phases at the LHC and future colliders.