Thermal signature of the Majorana fermion in a Josephson junction

Abstract

Possible signatures of "Majorana end states"are discussed by combining information extracted from subgap Cooper pair transport and transport of heat by excited quasiparticles above the gap across a thermally biased Josephson junction setup formed out of a one-dimensional (1D) topological superconductor hosting Majorana end states. We show that the presence of Majorana end states results in two sets of testable relations: (i) the ratios between the various multiterminal thermal conductances is independent of the Josephson phase bias, and (ii) the phase independence of the ratios of "ratios of the phase derivative of multiterminal thermal conductance and the corresponding Josephson current", in a three-terminal setup. We contrast out findings with a Josephson junction setup composed of a 1D topological superconductor hosting "Andreev type end states"and show that they violate the above-mentioned relations. We also discuss how the presence of nonequilibrium noise in thermal current influences our predictions.