Screening clouds and Majorana fermions (Q2254889)

This paper deals with the study of Josephson currents through a long normal wire between two topologicial superconductors. Analytic formulae are derived when the ratio of the screening cloud size associated with the Majorana mode is large or small, based on simple physical pictures. Experimental measurements on long topological Superconductor-Normal-Superconductor junctions provide evidence for the existence of Majorana modes and of a Kondo-like screening cloud. Numerical simulations of the interacting case are developed in the final part of this paper and they require the use of the Density Matrix Renormalization Group method.