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Thermoelectrical detection of Majorana states

Rosa Lopez, Minchul Lee, Llorens Serra, Jong Soo Lim
Physical Review B 89, 205418 (1-7) (2014)

We discuss the thermoelectrical properties of nanowires hosting Majorana edge states. For a Majorana nanowire directly coupled to two normal reservoirs the thermopower always vanishes regardeless of the value of the Majorana hybridization. This situation changes drastically if we insert a quantum dot. Then, the dot Majorana side coupled system exhibits a different behavior for the thermopower depending on the Majorana hybridization parameter. Thermopower reverses its sign when the half fermionic state is fully developed. As long as the hybridization becomes finite the Seebeck coefficient behaves similarly to a resonant level system. The sign change of the thermopower when Majorana physics takes place and the fact that both, the electrical and thermal conductances reach, their half fermionic value could serve as a proof of the existence of Majorana edge states in nanowires. Finally, we perform some predictions about the gate dependence of the Seebeck coefficient when Kondo correlations are present in the dot.