Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/iii/paper-342/3/d/solution

The two new boundaries surround opposite sides of the same bulk. Their induced orientations are opposite, so their chiral edge modes counterpropagate and .
For and , define the mass
It approaches on the left and on the right. The zero-energy first-order equations have one normalizable real solution, whose envelope can be chosen as
after choosing the constant Majorana spinor with the appropriate relative sign. The corresponding operator
is self-adjoint and commutes with the Hamiltonian, so it is a Majorana zero mode at a mass domain wall.
Outside the core it decays on
If the phase varies approximately linearly across the core, then near zero and the central envelope is Gaussian with width
Thus the spatial extent is of order , up to constants depending on the detailed vortex profile. When , continuously changing their magnitudes to equality never changes their opposite signs or closes the asymptotic mass gap. The mass domain wall therefore retains its odd, particle-hole-protected zero mode; only its two component amplitudes and localization lengths change.

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