Majorana bound states in artificial Kitaev chains

The Kitaev chain model predicts the ability to engineer localized Majorana bound states: non-Abelian zero-energy excitations that are protected from local perturbations, which can be utilized for realizing robust quantum computation schemes. Recent work on InSb nanowires demonstrated that the ingredients for a minimal Kitaev chain, consisting of two sites, can be engineered by coupling quantum dots (QDs) via two second-order processes: crossed Andreev reflection and elastic co-tunnelling.