Abstract: Twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) realizes an exquisitely tunable, strongly interacting system featuring superconductivity and various correlated insulating states.  In this talk I will introduce gate-defined wires in TBG as an enticing platform for Majorana-based fault-tolerant qubits.  Our proposal notably relies on “internally” generated superconductivity in TBG – as opposed to “external” superconducting proximity effects commonly employed in Majorana devices – and may operate even at zero magnetic field.  I will also describe how electrical measurements of gate-defined wires can reveal the nature of correlated insulators and shed light on the Cooper-pairing mechanism in TBG.

Bio: Jason Alicea received his PhD from UC Santa Barbara in 2007 and then held a postdoc fellowship at Caltech.  In 2010 he joined the faculty at UC Irvine before returning to Caltech as a professor in 2012.  His research explores novel phases of matter in various physical settings, often motivated by fault-tolerant quantum computing applications.