Hypothesis
Anomalous current-phase relations and nonreciprocal supercurrent in topological-insulator Josephson junctions signal Majorana bound states.
What failed
Reconstructing the current-phase relation as a function of magnetic field, the anomalous peak-dip structure and the nonreciprocal supercurrent both appeared when one flux quantum threaded the junction, but no evidence of Majorana bound states was found despite the extensive prior literature.
Broken assumption
Anomalous current-phase features in a topological-insulator junction are a Majorana signature.
Why
The authors show the features follow from a nonuniform supercurrent distribution across the junction, which also produces the tunable Josephson diode effect.
From the published paper: Kudriashov et al. Science Advances, 2025. ↗CC BY