Observation of Phase Controllable Majorana-like Bound States in Metamaterial-based Kitaev Chain Analogues

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate that Majorana-like bound states (MLBSs) can occur in quasione-dimensional metamaterials, analogous to Majorana zero modes (MZM) in the Kitaev chain. In a mechanical spinner ladder system, we observe a topological phase transition and spectral-gapprotected edge MLBSs. We characterize the decaying and oscillatory nature of these MLBS pairs and their phase-dependent hybridization. It is shown that the hybridization can be tuned to yield the analogue of parity switching in MZMs, a key element of topological qubits. We find strong agreements with theory.

Duality of Topological Edge States in a Mechanical Kitaev Chain

“…Although mechanical analogues of the Kitaev chain have been investigated in the past [13,[22][23][24], this is the first time that a system with an intrinsic particlehole symmetry that maps to a non-zero chemical potential Kitaev chain is presented. Furthermore, we find that this system supports a hitherto unobserved duality between the finite lattices with fixed and free boundary conditions.…”