@article{ScharfBraggioStambinietal.2020,
  author    = {Scharf, Benedikt and Braggio, Alessandro and Stambini, Elia and Giazotto, Francesco and Hankiewicz, Ewelina M.},
  title     = {Topological Josephson heat engine},
  series = {Communications Physics},
  volume    = {3},
  journal   = {Communications Physics},
  doi       = {10.1038/s42005-020-00463-6},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-230603},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Topological superconductors represent a fruitful playing ground for fundamental research as well as for potential applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing. Especially Josephson junctions based on topological superconductors remain intensely studied, both theoretically and experimentally. The characteristic property of these junctions is their 4-periodic ground-state fermion parity in the superconducting phase difference. Using such topological Josephson junctions, we introduce the concept of a topological Josephson heat engine. We discuss how this engine can be implemented as a Josephson-Stirling cycle in topological superconductors, thereby illustrating the potential of the intriguing and fruitful marriage between topology and coherent thermodynamics. It is shown that the Josephson-Stirling cycle constitutes a highly versatile thermodynamic machine with different modes of operation controlled by the cycle temperatures. Finally, the thermodynamic cycle reflects the hallmark 4 pi -periodicity of topological Josephson junctions and could therefore be envisioned as a complementary approach to test topological superconductivity. Topological superconductors are expected to be a key component of quantum computing systems but reliably detecting their exotic properties is a challenge. Here, the authors propose a topological Josephson heat engine which uses thermodynamic effects to probe the 4 pi -periodic ground state of a topological superconductor.},
  language  = {en}
}