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Resource-Efficient Emulation of Majorana Zero Mode Braiding on a Superconducting Trijunction

arXiv Quantum Physics
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⚡ Quantum Brief
Researchers from NYU and Yale introduced a resource-efficient method to emulate Majorana zero mode (MZM) braiding using superconducting trijunctions, addressing a key challenge in topological quantum computing. Their approach reduces quantum gate overhead compared to traditional adiabatic methods. The team developed direct braiding operators that simulate MZM evolution more efficiently, eliminating the need for deep quantum circuits required in previous spin-glass model emulations. This breakthrough could accelerate practical topological quantum computation. The study focuses on trijunction geometries, where three superconducting wires meet, creating a platform to manipulate MZMs with fewer physical qubits. This design simplifies experimental implementation while maintaining topological protection. The method was further generalized to Kitaev chain-based architectures, demonstrating scalability for complex braiding operations. This extends potential applications to larger quantum systems without proportional resource increases. Published in March 2026, the work provides a pathway to test MZM braiding—critical for fault-tolerant quantum gates—without the extreme experimental challenges of direct physical realization. It bridges theory and near-term quantum hardware capabilities.
Resource-Efficient Emulation of Majorana Zero Mode Braiding on a Superconducting Trijunction

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Quantum Physics arXiv:2603.03645 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 4 Mar 2026] Title:Resource-Efficient Emulation of Majorana Zero Mode Braiding on a Superconducting Trijunction Authors:Rahul Signh, Weixin Lu, Kaelyn J Ferris, Javad Shabani View a PDF of the paper titled Resource-Efficient Emulation of Majorana Zero Mode Braiding on a Superconducting Trijunction, by Rahul Signh and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Topological superconductivity could host quasiparticles that are key candidates for fault-tolerant quantum computation due to their immunity to noise as they obey non-Abelian exchange statistics. For example, in the case of Majorana Zero Modes (MZM), braiding enables two topologically protected quantum gates. While their direct manipulation in solid-state systems remains experimentally challenging, digital emulation of MZM behavior has provided insight as well as a deeper understanding of controlling these topological quantum systems. This emulation is typically accomplished by mapping the topological and trivial phases of a Majorana system to ferromagnetic and paramagnetic Hamiltonians of a spin-glass model. This approach usually relies on adiabatic evolution of superconducting Hamiltonians, which require circuits with very large depths. In this work, we present a resource-efficient method to emulate MZM braiding in a trijunction geometry using a quantum processor. We introduce direct braiding operators which simulate the evolution more efficiently, reducing the quantum gate overhead. We then further generalize this method to emulate braiding operations in extended trijunction architectures based on Kitaev chains. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2603.03645 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2603.03645v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.03645 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Kaelyn Ferris [view email] [v1] Wed, 4 Mar 2026 02:09:11 UTC (312 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Resource-Efficient Emulation of Majorana Zero Mode Braiding on a Superconducting Trijunction, by Rahul Signh and 3 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-03 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)

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Source: arXiv Quantum Physics