Quantum computation by non-Abelian Majorana zero modes (MZMs) offers an approach to achieve fault tolerance by encoding quantum information in the non-local charge parity states of semiconductor nanowire networks in the topological superconductor regime. Thus far, experimental studies of MZMs chiefly relied on single electron tunneling measurements, which lead to the decoherence of the quantum information stored in the MZM. As a next step towards topological quantum computation, charge parity conserving experiments based on the Josephson effect are required, which can also help exclude suggested non-topological origins of the zero bias conductance anomaly. Here we report the direct measurement of the Josephson radiation frequency in indium arsenide nanowires with epitaxial aluminium shells. We observe the 4π-periodic Josephson effect above a magnetic field of ≈200 mT, consistent with the estimated and measured topological phase transition of similar devices.

We consider a chaotic many-body system (i.e. one that satisfies the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis) that is split into two subsystems, with an interaction along their mutual boundary, and study the entanglement properties of an energy eigenstate with nonzero energy density. When the two subsystems have nearly equal volumes, we find a universal correction to the entanglement entropy that is proportional to the square root of the system's heat capacity (or a sum of capacities, if there are conserved quantities in addition to energy). This phenomenon was first noted by Vidmar and Rigol in a specific system; our analysis shows that it is generic, and expresses it in terms of thermodynamic properties of the system. Our conclusions are based on a refined version of a model of a chaotic eigenstate originally due to Deutsch, and analyzed more recently by Lu and Grover. arXiv:1906.04295v2 [cond-mat.stat-mech]

We show that known bounds on the growth rates of operator complexity and the out-of-timeorder four-point correlator in chaotic many-body quantum systems follow directly from the general structure of operator matrix elements in systems that obey the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. This ties together two key paradigms of thermal behavior in isolated many-body quantum systems.

We study nanowire-based Josephson junctions shunted by a capacitor and take into account the presence of low-energy quasiparticle excitations. These are treated by extending conventional models used to describe superconducting qubits to include the coherent coupling between fermionic quasiparticles, in particular the Majorana zero modes that emerge in topological superconductors, and the plasma mode of the junction. Using accurate, unbiased matrix-product state techniques, we compute the energy spectrum and response function of the system across the topological phase transition. Furthermore, we develop a perturbative approach, valid in the harmonic limit with small charging energy, illustrating how the presence of low-energy quasiparticles affects the spectrum and response of the junction. Our results are of direct interest to on-going experimental investigations of nanowire-based superconducting qubits. arXiv:1905.03275v1 [cond-mat.mes-hall]

We present an elementary, general, and semi-quantitative description of relaxation to gaussian and generalized Gibbs states in lattice models of fermions or bosons with quadratic hamiltonians. Our arguments apply to arbitrary initial states that satisfy a mild condition on clustering of correlations. We also show that similar arguments can be used to understand relaxation (or its absence) in systems with time-dependent quadratic hamiltonians, and provide a semi-quantitative description of relaxation in quadratic periodically driven (Floquet) systems.