Electron correlation effects in superconducting nanowires in and out of equilibrium

Abstract

One-dimensional nanowires with strong spin–orbit coupling and proximity-inducedsuperconductivity are predicted to exhibit topological superconductivity with condensed-matteranalogues to Majorana fermions. Here, the nonequilibrium Green’s function approach with thegeneralized Kadanoff–Baym ansatz is employed to study the electron-correlation effects and theirrole in the topological superconducting phase inand out of equilibrium. Electron-correlationeffects are found to affect the transient signaturesregarding the zero-energy Majorana states, whenthe superconducting nanowire is subjected to external perturbations such as magnetic-fieldquenching, laser-pulse excitation, and coupling to biased normal-metal leads.