Current-driven reduction of topological protection in multichannel superconductors
We investigate the robustness of topological phases in a Kitaev ladder composed of two coupled superconducting chains under the perturbing influence of a finite charge current. By introducing an effective Hamiltonian depending on the quasiparticle momentum induced by the current, we show that the two-mode topological phase, present in the isolated ladder, is fragile against a finite current flux. To characterize this behavior, we combine bulk topological invariants with real-space diagnostics, including the edge-edge quantum conditional mutual information Iee, which provides an entanglement-based signature of topological order. Our results provide an effective framework to describe how current injection and measurement processes can affect topological protection in superconducting nanostructures.
Authors
- Alfonso Maiellaro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8539-9564)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. B./Physical review. B
- Published
- 2026-10-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/w78h-24wx
- Primary Topic
- Topological Materials and Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme