Topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states in chains of magnetic adatoms

Topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states have been a central issue in condensed matter physics for the past few years The holy grails of this field are the observation of the nonabelian quantum statistics of the Majorana bound states and its use for topological quantum information processing Proposals to engineer topological superconducting phases have led to a series of very promising experiments After a general introduction I will discuss one platform to engineer topological superconductors namely chains of magnetic adatoms on superconductors I will review the recent experiments on this system as well as the physical picture underlying the formation of the topological superconducting phase Refreshments are served at 14:45