Majorana zero modes in ferromagnetic wires without spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

We present a novel controllable platform for engineering Majorana zero modes. The platform consists of a ferromagnetic metallic wire placed among conventional superconductors, which are in proximity to ferromagnetic insulators. We demonstrate that Majorana zero modes emerge localised at the edges of the ferromagnetic wire, due to the interplay of the applied supercurrents and the induced by proximity exchange fields with conventional superconductivity. Our mechanism does not rely on the pairing of helical fermions by combining conventional superconductivity with spin-orbit coupling, but rather exploits the misalignment between the magnetization of the ferromagnetic insulators and that of the ferromagnetic wire.