Poor man's Majorana bound states in a quantum-dot-based Kitaev chain coupled to a photonic cavity
Phys. Rev. B 114, 165420 – Published 22 September, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/n4hr-q888
Abstract
Quantum-dot-based platforms offer a promising route towards realizing the Kitaev chain Hamiltonian hosting Majorana bound states (MBSs). Poor man's MBSs arise in a two-site Kitaev chain when the parameters of the system are fine tuned to the sweet spot. Based on our previous work [A. Gómez-León et al., Phys. Rev. B 111, 155410 (2025)], we consider a microscopic model for the Kitaev chain based on quantum dots with proximity effect embedded in a photonic cavity. We find that the photon coupling in the microscopic model yields an effective Hamiltonian where the cavity affects the pairing term. However, we demonstrate that even in this case, it is possible to screen particle interactions and reach the sweet-spot condition for the emergence of the poor man's MBSs. In particular, we find that attractive particle interactions can be canceled for the cavity prepared in the zero-photon state, while repulsive ones can be screened with a cavity prepared in the one-photon state. Furthermore, in the case of a large number of photons in the cavity, we find that the hopping amplitudes are suppressed, resulting in a degenerate spectrum. This motivates the use of quantum light for engineering poor man's MBSs with cavity embedding.
