Theory of statistical topological insulators

Project Information

STATOPINS

Grant agreement ID: 638760

DOI

10.3030/638760

Project closed

EC signature date 13 February 2015

Start date 1 March 2015

End date 29 February 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 355 103,00

EU contribution

€ 1 355 103,00

Coordinated by

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - STATOPINS (Theory of statistical topological insulators)

Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2020-02-29

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Topology is a new tool in the toolbox of quantum material design that allows to engineer materials with properties protected from noise and disorder. It allows to create quantum computers, and protects electric current from dissipating.
Topological materials usually need to satisfy a specific property, for example they may require the materials to be nonmagnetic. This project aims to relax this requirement and to instead apply topology to materials that have a finite magnetization, which vanishes on average.
Such a generalization will enable the researchers to identify new types topological materials, and improve the control and understanding of quantum matter.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The research team has developed a new algorithm for automatically characterizing and classifying properties of disordered systems. This has enabled them to find a new method of creating the Majorana particles—a building block of a topologically protected quantum computer.
The researchers have also discovered a new way to probe and characterize Majorana particles in presence of disorder by measuring conductance through the device.
Unlike the previously used probes this method allows to verify that the Majorana particles are protected by topology, and to evaluate the quality of this protection.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The researchers have developed algorithms for automatically identifying topological insulators that are especially suitable for automated analysis of disorder systems. They will now turn to exploit their new algorithm and identify new topological materials based on naturally disordered systems like alloys of several materials and random magnets. By the end of the project they expect to design new approaches to designing Majorana particles and find new types of topological insulators.

The workflow of an automated algorithm for determining symmetries