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ABSTRACT: Topological superconducting nanowires are characterized by Majorana zero modes, which can form the basis of topological qubits. In this talk, I will present some recent theoretical and experimental progress on these systems.

BIO: Chetan Nayak is a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, where he leads the Quantum Hardware program. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1988, received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1992, and received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1996. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB from 1996-1997 and a Professor of Physics at UCLA from 1997-2006. He was a Visiting Professor at Nihon University in Tokyo in 2002. He joined Microsoft in 2005 and the faculty of UCSB in 2007.