title: Quantized conductance at the Majorana phase transition in a disordered superconducting wire.
abstract: Superconducting wires without time-reversal and spin-rotation symmetries can be driven into a topological phase that supports Majorana bound states. Direct detection of these zero-energy states is complicated by the proliferation of low-lying excitations in a disordered multimode wire. We show that the phase transition itself is signaled by a quantized thermal conductance and electrical shot noise power, irrespective of the degree of disorder. In a ring geometry, the phase transition is signaled by a period doubling of the magnetoconductance oscillations. These signatures directly follow from the identification of the sign of the determinant of the reflection matrix as a topological quantum number.
authors.affiliation: Instituut-Lorentz, Universiteit Leiden, Post Office Box 9506, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Akhmerov
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Dahlhaus
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hassler
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wimmer
authors.forename: C W J
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Beenakker