Recently developed artificial Kitaev chains, realized in quantum-dot arrays coupled via superconducting segments, offer a great degree of experimental control over parameters. Motivated by these advances, we study a dimerized Kitaev chain where onsite energies can be independently controlled. The dimerized Kitaev system can be interpreted as two effective Kitaev chains coupled via the onsite energies. We show that interference between Majorana edge modes from each effective chain can be controlled by these energies, resulting in either normal or Andreev transmission dominating the nonlocal conductance across the system. Such effect on the nonlocal conductance is connected to the fermion parity of the chain and, thus, to the system topological invariant. We explain the previous results using an analytical model describing the spatial decay and overlap of the Majorana edge modes from each effective chain.

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• Andreev bound states
• Majorana bound states
• Topological superconductors
• Green's function methods
• Kitaev model
• Nonequilibrium Green's function
• Tight-binding model