Topologically Protected Landau Level in the Vortex Lattice of a Weyl Superconductor

M.J. Pacholski, C.W.J. Beenakker, I. Adagideli

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

The question whether the mixed phase of a gapless superconductor can support a Landau level is a celebrated problem in the context of d-wave superconductivity, with a negative answer: the scattering of the subgap excitations (massless Dirac fermions) by the vortex lattice obscures the Landau level quantization. Here we show that the same question has a positive answer for a Weyl superconductor: the chirality of the Weyl fermions protects the zeroth Landau level by means of a topological index theorem. As a result, the heat conductance parallel to the magnetic field has the universal value G=12g0Φ/Φ0, with Φ as the magnetic flux through the system, Φ0 as the superconducting flux quantum, and g0 as the thermal conductance quantum.
Original languageEnglish
Article number037701
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume121
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes

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