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- Title
Topological Josephson heat engine.
- Authors
Scharf, Benedikt; Braggio, Alessandro; Strambini, Elia; Giazotto, Francesco; Hankiewicz, Ewelina M.
- Abstract
Topological superconductors represent a fruitful playing ground for fundamental research as well as for potential applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing. Especially Josephson junctions based on topological superconductors remain intensely studied, both theoretically and experimentally. The characteristic property of these junctions is their 4π-periodic ground-state fermion parity in the superconducting phase difference. Using such topological Josephson junctions, we introduce the concept of a topological Josephson heat engine. We discuss how this engine can be implemented as a Josephson–Stirling cycle in topological superconductors, thereby illustrating the potential of the intriguing and fruitful marriage between topology and coherent thermodynamics. It is shown that the Josephson–Stirling cycle constitutes a highly versatile thermodynamic machine with different modes of operation controlled by the cycle temperatures. Finally, the thermodynamic cycle reflects the hallmark 4π-periodicity of topological Josephson junctions and could therefore be envisioned as a complementary approach to test topological superconductivity. Topological superconductors are expected to be a key component of quantum computing systems but reliably detecting their exotic properties is a challenge. Here, the authors propose a topological Josephson heat engine which uses thermodynamic effects to probe the 4π-periodic ground state of a topological superconductor.
- Subjects
HEAT engines; SUPERCONDUCTORS; FAULT-tolerant computing; QUANTUM computing; THERMODYNAMICS
- Publication
Communications Physics, 2020, Vol 3, Issue 1, pN.PAG
- ISSN
2399-3650
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s42005-020-00463-6