Non-Abelian Braiding of Dirac Fermionic Modes Using Topological Corner States in Higher-Order Topological Insulator

Phys Rev Lett. 2020 Jul 17;125(3):036801. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.036801.

Abstract

We numerically demonstrate that the topological corner states residing in the corners of higher-order topological insulator possess non-Abelian braiding properties. Such topological corner states are Dirac fermionic modes other than Majorana zero modes. We claim that Dirac fermionic modes protected by nontrivial topology also support non-Abelian braiding. An analytical description on such non-Abelian braiding is conducted based on the vortex-induced Dirac-type fermionic modes. Finally, the braiding operators for Dirac fermionic modes, especially their explicit matrix forms, are analytically derived and compared with the case of Majorana zero modes.