10.6084/m9.figshare.1012017.v1 Sylvain Nascimbène Sylvain Nascimbène Position-resolved photoemission spectrum calculated with the parameters of figure 5 IOP Publishing 2013 Majorana edge state ultracold fermionic atoms 1 D gas Cooper pair reservoir topological superfluid topological superfluid boundaries 1 D tube topological superfluid phase 1 D system Atomic Physics Molecular Physics 2013-06-24 00:00:00 Figure https://iop.figshare.com/articles/figure/_Position_resolved_photoemission_spectrum_calculated_with_the_parameters_of_figure_a_href_http_iopsc/1012017 <p><strong>Figure 6.</strong> Position-resolved photoemission spectrum calculated with the parameters of figure <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-4075/46/13/134005/article#jpb448206f5" target="_blank">5</a>. The Majorana states probed at zero energy are localized at the edges of the topological superfluid.</p> <p><strong>Abstract</strong></p> <p>We propose an experimental implementation of a topological superfluid with ultracold fermionic atoms. An optical superlattice is used to juxtapose a 1D gas of fermionic atoms and a 2D conventional superfluid of condensed Feshbach molecules. The latter acts as a Cooper pair reservoir and effectively induces a superfluid gap in the 1D system. Combined with a spin-dependent optical lattice along the 1D tube and laser-induced atom tunnelling, we obtain a topological superfluid phase. In the regime of weak couplings to the molecular field and for a uniform gas, the atomic system is equivalent to Kitaev's model of a p-wave superfluid. Using a numerical calculation, we show that the topological superfluidity is robust beyond the perturbative limit and in the presence of a harmonic trap. Finally, we describe how to investigate some physical properties of the Majorana fermions located at the topological superfluid boundaries. In particular, we discuss how to prepare and detect a given Majorana edge state.</p>