Majorana end states in an interacting quantum wire

Here, the authors show that a realistic single-channel quantum wire with a repulsive interaction between electrons and a strong spin-orbit interaction (but without proximity to an s-wave superconductor) becomes topological when an external magnetic field perpendicular to the spin-orbit axis is applied. Under these simple conditions, the electron pair tunneling between spin ``up'' and ``down'' subbands turns the wire into a topological state like a p-wave superconductor, capable of hosting zero-energy Majorana states at the wire's open ends.