$\mathbb{Z}_4$ parafermions in weakly interacting superconducting constrictions at the helical edge of quantum spin Hall insulators

Abstract: Parafermions are generalizations of Majorana fermions that may appear in interacting topological systems. They are known to be powerful building blocks of topological quantum computers. Existing proposals for realizations of parafermions typically rely on strong electronic correlations which are hard to achieve in the laboratory. We identify a novel physical system in which parafermions generically develop. It is based on a quantum point contact formed by the helical edge states of a quantum spin Hall insulator in vicinity to an ordinary $s$-wave superconductor. Interestingly, our analysis suggests that $\mathbb{Z}_4$ parafermions are emerging bound states in this setup -- even in the {\it weakly interacting} regime.