The search for topologically degenerate Majorana modes in semiconductor/superconductor interfaces

Majorana fermions are fermion-like excitations that were originally
proposed in particle physics by Ettore Majorana and are characterized as
being their own anti-particles. The possibility of discovering Majorana
fermions as emergent fractionalized excitations in condensed matter
systems has lead to a lot of excitement because of the topologically
protected degeneracy associated with such excitations. In this talk, I
will discuss a recent set of proposals for realizing Majorana modes in a
large class of spin-orbit coupled, time-reversal symmetry broken
superconducting systems. The simplicity of this class of systems has
resulted in several experimental attempts, which have successfully
observed preliminary evidence for the Majorana modes in the form of
zero-bias conductance peaks and doubled Shapiro steps. Following this I
will then discuss future possibilities in terms of modifications to the
experiments to help confirm the presence of Majorana modes. Possible ways
of manipulating the Majorana modes and probing their non-local properties
will also be discussed.