Majorana edge modes with gain and loss

Abstract

We consider a non-Hermitian generalization of the Kitaev model and study the existence of stable Majorana zero energy modes. We show that they exist in the limit of zero chemical potential even if balanced gain and loss are randomly distributed along the lattice. We show that Majorana zero modes also appear if the chemical potential is different from zero provided that not the full Hamiltonian but the non-Hermitian part of the Hamiltonian is PT symmetric.