The non-Abelian phase, computed end to end
Kitaev + field, exactly: Chern number ±1 (analytic gap matched to 4 digits), one chiral Majorana edge mode, Majorana zero modes bound to vortices — then braided numerically. Exchanges sharing a vortex refuse to commute (Ivanov-pattern match 0.975); disjoint exchanges commute to 0.005.
Adding a field term to the Kitaev honeycomb opens its non-Abelian phase. The whole structure is computed exactly from the free-Majorana spectrum — Chern number ±1, a single chiral Majorana edge branch, and the Majorana zero modes bound to vortices.
Those zero modes are then braided numerically: exchanges that share a vortex refuse to commute (matching Ivanov’s prediction at 0.975) while disjoint exchanges commute to 0.005. Non-commuting exchanges with a near-exact null control are non-Abelian statistics, end to end.
Every number above is from a completed, logged run — controls, matched parameters, and error bars; negatives included. ← all research · next: symmetry-tied decoders →