Physics Colloquium: Extended topological Josephson junctions

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Abstract: 

Topological materials in general, and topological superconductivity in particular, have attracted enormous attention from both theorists and experimentalists. For theorists, this field provides a fascinating playground for realizing relativistic topological phenomena within solid-state physics, including Majorana (Ising) anyons, axions, and related exotic excitations. Experimental progress has been slower, hindered mainly by the non-ideality of real materials. Recently, however, the situation has begun to improve; see, e.g., Refs. [1,2].

In this talk, I will review recent theoretical and experimental progress in the field of extended topological Josephson junctions within the framework proposed by L. Fu and C.L. Kane [3], with particular emphasis on the very recent experiments in the Corbino geometry [2]. I will discuss several theoretical extensions of the original 1D low-energy description introduced by Fu and Kane [3], which in some cases lead to phenomena reminiscent of black holes. I hope to demonstrate that these s­ystems and their extensions are exceptionally rich and deserving of further investigation.

[1] S.K. Kushwaha et al., Nature Communications 7, 11456 (2016)

[2] J. Park et al., arXiv:2601.14384 (2026)

[3] L. Fu and C.L. Kane, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 096407 (2008)

Event Organizer: Prof. Michael Geller