Correlated parity measurements as a probe of non-Abelian statistics in one-dimensional superconducting wires

We propose a method to detect a signature of non-Abelian statistics in a one-dimensional (1D) superconducting wire by tuning the effective coupling between a pair of Majorana particles. Our experiment requires a single wire with two segments in the topological superconducting phase and a total of four Majorana particles. We show that an appropriately timed "pulse" in the coupling between the two middle Majoranas leads to a coherent rotation of the two qubits associated with the pairs of Majoranas in the two topological superconducting segments, in much the same way that an appropriate-length pulse of a transverse magnetic field can be used to rotate spins in nuclear magnetic resonance. This can be exploited both to probe the correlations of the Majoranas and to manipulate the Majorana qubits in these 1D wires. We discuss the experimental requirements for such a coherent rotation to be observable when the wire system is coupled to a fermionic bath.