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Twin techniques narrow search for elusive Majorana particles

A versatile nanowire system has enabled the hunt for particles that could be useful for quantum computers. The platform can be probed with two techniques simultaneously — minimizing the possibility of false-positive signals.
  1. Manohar Kumar

    1. Manohar Kumar is in the Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.

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  2. Chuan Li

    1. Chuan Li is in the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, 7522NB Enschede, University of Twente, the Netherlands.

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Majorana particles are curious things. They are unusual excitations comprising a pair of half electrons — and they are their own antiparticles. This means that they annihilate each other when brought together, but remain stable when separated. What makes them really intriguing is that they retain a memory of how they move — a property that could be used to store quantum information in solid-state systems. The only problem is that they are tremendously difficult to find, and there have been instances of false-positive detections. Writing in Nature, Valentini et al.1 report a system in which measurements can be made simultaneously using two techniques, reducing the probability of false positives and revealing a simple explanation for a misleading signature.

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Nature 612, 409-411 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04351-7

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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