Majorana modes in semiconductor nanowires

In 2012 several experiments reported evidence of the
existence of Majorana states in semiconductor wires.
They attracted a lot of interest since these peculiar
states might be the basis of topological quantum computers
whose operation principle is the dynamical braiding of
linear chains of states. In this seminar I will give a general
motivation on Majorana modes, focusing next on the
description of their physics using a simple model of a semiconductor
nanowire with Rashba spin-orbit interaction,
induced superconductivity and Zeeman splitting. I will report on three
different aspects: a) the spectrum of an isolated finite nanowire,
b) the edge states of a semi infinite nanowire, c) the linear conductance
of a finite nanowire attached to normal leads.