Ein drahtloses Multihop-Netzwerk (DMN) ist ein verteiltes Kommunikationssystem, welches vor allem die Fähigkeit zur automatischen Anpassung an sich ständig änderne Umgebungsbedingungen hat. Eine zentrale Fragestellung in DMNen ist, ob das Netzwerk partitioniert ist, ob also nicht mehr jeder Knoten mit jedem anderen Knoten kommunizieren kann. Um festzustellen, ob eine Partitionierung droht werden mit Hilfe von 2-Zusammenhangstests Brücken und Artikulationspunkte im Kommunikationsgraphen gesucht. Daraufhin können anschließend korrektive Aktionen eingeleitet werden um die Partitionierung zu verhindern und somit die Netzwerkverfügbarkeit zu erhöhen. Eine Vielzahl von 2-Zusammenhangstestverfahren wurde bereits erfolgreich bei drahtgebundenen Netzen eingesetzt. Allerdings sind diese Verfahren ungeeignet für drahtlose Netze, da die Ungenauigkeiten durch den häufigen Paketverlust in solchen Systemen bisher nicht berücksichtigt wurden. Mit Hilfe von stochastischen Modellen wird gezeigt, dass Fehler in der Entscheidungsfindung für DMNen bereits bei sehr einfachen Problemen wie der Link-Erkennung signifikant sein können. In dieser Arbeit werden daher verschiedene Verfahren präsentiert, die auch auf Grundlage unsicherer Informationen noch eine verlässliche Entscheidungsfindung ermöglichen. Die Arbeit präsentiert einen neuen verteilten Algorithmus zum Test auf 2-Zusammenhang, welcher Fehler durch Nachrichtenverlust berücksichtigt und gleichzeitig die Anzahl an Nachrichten reduziert. Basierend auf einer umfassenden Analyse der Einflüsse von Kommunikationsfehlern auf den Algorithmus, wurden Abstimmungsprozeduren entwickelt, die die Wahrscheinlichkeit von Fehlentscheidungen nochmals reduzieren. Zur weiteren Analyse werden die Algorithmen erstens in der Motelab-Umgebung und zweitens mit Hilfe von Simulationen untersucht. Die präsentierten Algorithmen zeigen überzeugende Ergebnisse unter variierenden Bedingungen, was ihre Anwendbarkeit in realen Szenarien unterstreicht. / Wireless multi-hop network (WMN) is a distributed communication system composed of autonomous processing nodes that is known for its ability to automatically adjust to rapidly changing conditions in the surrounding environment. Connectivity is one of the basic properties of a network. Removal of a bridge or an articulation point partitions a network. Biconnectivity testing identifies bridges and articulation points in a network, and once they are known corrective actions can be performed in order to improve network''s reliability. Numerous biconnectivity testing algorithms are successfully applied in graphs, wired networks and multiprocessor systems. However, they are inadequate for application in wireless networks since the frequent packet losses introduce uncertainty in the system which these algorithms cannot handle. The stochastic analysis shows that errors in decision-making in WMNs are considerable even for seemingly simple tasks such as the detection of links. The main contribution of this work is to provide means for accurate binary decision-making under uncertainty within the context of biconnectivity testing in WMNs. A distributed algorithm is developed that successfully handles the faults caused by message losses and simultaneously utilizes benefits of wireless communication to reduce message complexity from O(e) to O(n). Based on stochastic analysis of WMN topologies and a comprehensive analysis of impact of communication faults on algorithm''s behavior, the algorithm is extended by voting theory to reduce probability of erroneous decisions. The algorithm and the voting rules are evaluated in experiments in Motelab testbed and in the event-based simulator Jist/SWANS. The algorithm is accurate under various conditions which demonstrates its applicability in reality and capability of successful operation in presence of packet losses.

Strukturoptimierung ist momentan stark auf Diskretisierungsmethoden angewiesen. In einfachen Fällen, wie die Simulation von Rahmen und Stabwerke, wo eine Diskretisierung nicht notwendig ist, werden nur die Dehnung oder die Stauchung der Stäbe betrachtet, und die Verbindungen sind frei, wie Kugelgelenke, um die Biegungen der Stäbe zu vermeiden. In dieser Dissertation wird eine diskretisierungsfreie Methode zur Modellierung und Optimierung eines Rahmens entwickelt, die die Biegung der Balken sowie die Dehnung oder Stauchung zusammen betrachtet, wobei starre Verbindungen angenommen werden. Starre Verbindungen entstehen, wenn die Balken zusammen geschweißt oder mit mehrere Nieten verbunden sind. Die Optimierungsprobleme, sowohl das Zustands- und als auch das Entwurfsproblem, sind durch die gesamte elastische Energie und die Arbeit der äußeren Kräfte gegeben. Für das Problem der optimalen Größeneinteilung wird darüber hinaus eine topologische Sensitivität zur Einführung neuer Balken zwischen zwei beliebigen Punkten auf dem Rahmen diskutiert. / Structural optimisation currently relies heavily on methods based on discretisation. In simpler cases like the simulation of frames and trusses, where discretisation is not necessary, only the elongation or compression is considered and the joints are free, like ball and socket joints, in order to avoid bending the trusses. In this dissertation a discretisation free method for the modelling and optimisation of frames is developed which considers bending of the beams along with compression or elongation with joints between the beams being rigid. Rigid joints are commonly the result of welding two beams together or connecting them using mutiple rivets. The optimisation problems, both state and design optimisation, are formulated via the total elastic energy and the work done by external forces. Moreover, for the optimal sizing problem a topological sensitivity for introduction of new beams between any two arbitrary positions in the frame is discussed.

In dieser Arbeit praesentieren wir Resultate der topologischen Suszeptibilitaet “chi” und untersuchen die Faktorisierung der reinen SU(N) Yang-Mills Eichtheorie im 't Hooft'schen Grenzwert grosser N. Ein entscheidender Teil der Berechnung von chi in der Gittereichtheorie ist die Abschaetzung des topologischen Ladungsdichtekorrelators, die durch ein schlechtes Signal-Rausch- Verhaeltnis beeintraechtigt ist. Um dieses Problem abzuschwaechen, fuehren wir einen neuen, auf einem mehrstufigen Vorgehen beruhenden Algorithmus ein, um die Korrelationsfunktion von Observablen zu berechnen, die mit dem Yang-Mills Gradientenfluss geglaettet wurden. Angewandt auf unsere Observablen, erhalten wir Ergebnisse, deren Fehlerskalierung besser ist, als die von herkoemmlichen Monte-Carlo Simulationen. Wir bestimmen die topologische Suszeptibilitaet in der reinen Yang-Mills Eichtheorie fuer Eichgruppen mit N = 4,5,6 und drei verschiedenen Gitterabstaenden. Um das Einfrieren der Topologie zu umgehen, wenden wir offene Randbedingungen an. Zusaetzlich wenden wir die korrekte Definition der topologischen Ladungsdichte durch den Gradientenfluss an. Unser Endresultat im des Grenzfalls von grossen N repraesentiert eine neue Qualitaet in der Verifikation der Witten-Veneziano Formel. Schliesslich benutzen wir die Gitterformulierung, um die Erwartungswertfaktorisierung des Produkts eichinvarianter Operatoren im Grenzwert grosser N zu verifizieren. Wir arbeiten mit durch den Yang-Mills Grandientenfluss geglaetteten Wilsonschleifen und Simulationen bis zur Eichgruppe SU(8). Die Extrapolationen zu grossen N sind in Ueberstimmung mit der Faktorisierung sowohl fuer endlichen Gitterabstand als auch in Kontinnumslimes. Unsere Daten erlauben uns nicht nur die Verifizierung der Faktorisierung, sondern auch einen hochpraezisen Test des 1/N Skalierungsverhaltens. Hier konnten wir das quadratische Skalierungsverhalten in 1/N finden, welches von 't Hooft vorhergesagt wurde. / In this thesis we present results for the topological susceptibility “chi”, and investigate the property of factorization in the 't Hooft large N limit of SU(N) pure Yang-Mills gauge theory. A key component in the lattice gauge theory computation of chi is the estimation of the topological charge density correlator, which is affected by a severe signal to noise problem. To alleviate this problem, we introduce a novel algorithm that uses a multilevel type approach to compute the correlation function of observables smoothed with the Yang-Mills gradient flow. When applied to our observables, the results show an scaling of the error which is better than the one of standard Monte-Carlo simulations. We compute the topological susceptibility in the pure Yang-Mills gauge theory for the gauge groups with N = 4, 5, 6 and three different lattice spacings. In order to deal with the freezing of topology, we use open boundary conditions. In addition, we employ the theoretically sound definition of the topological charge density through the gradient flow. Our final result in the limit N to infinity, represents a new quality in the verification of the Witten-Veneziano formula. Lastly, we use the lattice formulation to verify the factorization of the expectation value of the product of gauge invariant operators in the large N limit. We work with Wilson loops smoothed with the Yang-Mills gradient flow and simulations up to the gauge group SU(8). The large N extrapolations at finite lattice spacing and in the continuum are compatible with factorization. Our data allow us not only to verify factorization, but also to test the 1/N scaling up to very high precision, where we find it to agree very well with a quadratic series in 1/N as predicted originally by 't Hooft for the case of the pure Yang-Mills gauge theory.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der theoretischen Beschreibung der komplexen physikalischen Eigenschaften von Netzwerken semiflexibler Polymere. Ausgehend vom mathematischen Modell eines semiflexiblen Polymers, der \"wurmartigen Kette\" (wormlike chain), werden zwei wesentlich neue Konzepte zur Beschreibung dieses ungeordneten Materialzustands eingeführt. Einerseits wird das experimentell beobachtete, glasähnliche Fließen solcher Materialien durch das phänomenologische Modell eines semiflexiblen Polymers mit verallgemeinerter Reibung beschrieben, welche den Gesamteffekt der physikalischen oder auch chemischen Wechselwirkungen der Polymere untereinander widerspiegelt. Andererseits wird das bestehende Konzept der durch seine Nachbarfilamente erzeugten röhrenförmigen Einsperrung eines Filaments erweitert und die experimentell nachgewiesene, räumlich veränderliche Struktur der Röhre erklärt. Die erzielten Ergebnisse werden durch Rechnersimulationen sowie durch experimentelle Daten gestützt.

This thesis was inspired by the discovery of Bi14Rh3I9, the first so-called weak three-dimensional topological insulator (3D-TI) and has been concerned with the topic of TIs in general. Two aspects were tackled to gain a deeper understanding of this new state of matter. On one hand, the expansion of the material’s basis and on the other hand developing a simple model of the structure and analysing it via density-functional theory (DFT) based methods. To discover new materials, a systematic investigation of the metal-rich parts of the bismuth–platinum-metal–iodine phase systems was conducted. It led to six new phases among the bismuth subiodides. Some of which, e.g. Bi14Rh3I9, share a honeycomb network of platinum-metal-centred bismuth-cubes and are the seed of a family of materials with this structural motive. The others show strand-like structures or layered structures with platinum-platinum bonds. The latter were so far unknown amongst bismuth subiodides. The honeycomb network was separately analysed and shown to host the TI properties. Structurally and electronically it can be seen as a “heavy graphene analogue”, which refers to the fact that graphene with hypothetical strong spin-orbit coupling (“heavy graphene”) was the first TI put forward by theoreticians. Apart from DFT-calculations, physical experiments confirmed the TI properties. Angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) was used to verify the electronic structure and scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM and STS) to reveal the protected 1D edge states present at the cleaving surface of this material. As the arrangement of the honeycomb layer varies between the different known and newly discovered materials within this family of structures, this influence was also investigated. All further materials were also characterised by DFT-calculations and physical experiments, e.g. magnetisation and transport measurements. This thesis might give an experimental and theoretical basis for a deeper understanding of the TI state of matter. The 1D edge states on the surface of Bi14Rh3I9 could be a chance to handle spins and therefore propel spintronic research, or they could host Majorana fermions, which could be used as qubits in quantum computing.

We extend Følner’s amenability criterion to the realm of general topological groups. Building on this, we show that a topological group G is amenable if and only if its left-translation action can be approximated in a uniform manner by amenable actions on the set G. As applications we obtain a topological version of Whyte’s geometric solution to the von Neumann problem and give an affirmative answer to a question posed by Rosendal.

Strongly correlated systems on geometrically frustrated lattices can stabilize a large number of interesting phases that includes a wide array of novel Mott insulators in both bosonic and electronic systems. Charge fluctuations in a Mott insulator are suppressed due to strong mutual interaction among the particles. The presence of frustration is of particular importance as the physics it offers is often rich, unexpectedly complicated, and continues to raise many open questions. The thesis elucidates some of these issues on a kagome lattice where strong interactions among the particles in the Mott phase impose non-trivial local constraints depending on the filling fraction on the lattice. These Mott insulators, in addition to featuring unusual magnetic and/or charge ordering, can also harbor topologically ordered states of quantum matter, e.g., resonating valence bond liquids realized in certain quantum dimer models on non-bipartite lattices. The dimer models can be regarded as low-energy effective theories for different types of bosonic models in the strong-coupling limit. Exploring this connection is a central theme of this thesis with the aim of realizing novel strongly correlated ground states. Past studies of these models have revealed the existence of various ordered and disordered phases with distinct signatures. Among these low-energy phases, the presence of a stable topological liquid at a particular point, known as Rokhsar-Kivelson point, in the phase diagram is notable. The classical versions of the dimer model are also known to have garnered a vast interest in various fields ranging from problems of pure mathematical origin to ones in physical chemistry as well as statistical physics. Pioneered by Kasteleyn, several analytical works came forward to exactly calculate the partition function of the problem from which other physical observables can be derived. Classical numerical methods are extensively applied to these models to verify the analytical predictions. We introduce a new classical algorithm here to compute the correlation functions of a classical dimer model on a square (bipartite) and a triangular (non-bipartite) lattice based on a tensor network construction. The method, called tensor network renormalization group, turns out to be a powerful tool for simulating short-ranged gapped systems as inferred from our results benchmarked against the classical Monte-Carlo technique and compared with past analytical studies. One should note that the quantum dimer model at the Rokhsar-Kivelson point can also be described as an infinite temperature canonical ensemble of classical dimers because of the particular structure of the ground state which is an equal weight superposition in the configuration manifold. The geometry of the lattice plays a pivotal role in deciding the nature of the phases that arise in the dimer models. Many physical properties of the dimer liquid phase can be extracted in the simple classical setting which certainly allows for a deep understanding of the classical models to be developed. The liquid phase is gapped on non-bipartite lattices and gapless on bipartite lattices, which is reflected in the decay of correlation functions with spatial distances. In general on non-bipartite lattices, the topological nature of the dimer liquid is characterized by a Z2 topological order which survives even when the model is perturbed away from the Rokhsar-Kivelson point. Stability of this liquid phase not only depends on the lattice geometries but notably on dimer concentrations also. In this context, we focus on a particular variant of the dimer model on a triangular lattice which is known as the quantum fully packed loop model. The model is composed of nonintersecting closed loops made of dimers and governed by the same Hamiltonian as the quantum dimer model. The loop model provides an effective low-energy description of a strongly correlated bosonic system at 1/3 filling on the kagome lattice. The corresponding Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian consists of nearest-neighbor hopping and all possible repulsive interactions within a hexagonal plaquette. Conspicuous features of the zero-temperature phase diagram for this model include (i) presence of a stable Z2 liquid even without any Rokhsar-Kivelson potential term (in distinction to the standard quantum dimer model), and (ii) an unconventional phase transition from the liquid phase to a novel crystalline phase that has nematic order (dubbed lattice nematic). For a deeper understanding of the physics, a mapping to an Ising gauge theory is presented. The gauge theoretic description provides a useful way to predict the nature of the quantum phase transition to lie in the O(3) universality class. Finally a fermionic model at the same 1/3 filling is considered in which the ground state exhibits a number of exotic local orderings resulting from the spin-charge interplay of electrons. The Hamiltonian comprises nearest-neighbor hopping, strong on-site Coulomb interaction, and repulsive interaction terms only between nearest-neighbors. In the strong correlation limit, this fermionic problem maps to a two-color fully packed loop model – a model in which the loop segments carry an additional quantum number as color on a honeycomb lattice. The effective theory is governed by coherent three-particle ring exchanges and nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic spin exchanges. The competition between these two leads to a phase diagram composed of a novel plaquette ordered state (known as the plaquette phase) that undergoes phase transition to a new kind of charge ordered state which we call a short loop phase. From our numerical analysis, we conclude that the plaquette phase features an unusual antiferromagnetic order with gapless spin excitations while the charge-ordered state is subjugated by spin fluctuations of localized electrons arranged in small hexagonal loops on the kagome lattice.

In this thesis, we investigate the quantum transport properties of disordered three dimensional topological insulator (3DTI) nanostructures of BiSe and BiTe in detail. Despite their intrinsic bulk conductivity, we show the possibility to study the specific transport properties of the topological surface states (TSS), either with or without quantum confinement. Importantly, we demonstrate that unusual transport properties not only come from the Dirac nature of the quasi-particles, but also from their spin texture. Without quantum confinement (wide ribbons), the transport properties of diffusive 2D spin-helical Dirac fermions are investigated. Using high magnetic fields allows us to measure and separate all contributions to charge transport. Band bending is investigated in BiSe nanostructures, revealing an inversion from upward to downward bending when decreasing the bulk doping. This result points out the need to control simultaneously both the bulk and surface residual doping in order to produce bulk-depleted nanostructures and to study TSS only. Moreover, Shubnikov-de-Haas oscillations and transconductance measurements are used to measure the ratio of the transport length to the electronic mean free path ltr/le. This ratio is measured to be close to one for bulk states, whereas it is close to 8 for TSS, which is a hallmark of the anisotropic scattering of spin-helical Dirac fermions. With transverse quantum confinement (narrow wires or ribbons), the ballistic transport of quasi-1D surface modes is evidenced by mesoscopic transport measurements, and specific properties due to their topological nature are revealed at very low temperatures. The metallic surface states are directly evidenced by the measure of periodic Aharonov-Bohm oscillations (ABO) in 3DTI nanowires. Their exponential temperature dependence gives an unusual power-law temperature dependence of the phase coherence length, which is interpreted in terms of quasi-ballistic transport and decoherence in the weak-coupling regime. This remarkable finding is a consequence of the enhanced transport length, which is comparable to the perimeter. Besides, the ballistic transport of quasi-1D surface modes is further evidenced by the observation of non-universal conductance fluctuations in a BiSe nanowire, despite the long-length limit (L > ltr) and a high metallicity (many modes). We show that such an unusual property for a mesoscopic conductor is related to the limited mixing of the transverse modes by disorder, as confirmed by numerical calculations. Importantly, a model based on the modes' transmissions allows us to describe our experimental results, including the full temperature dependence of the ABO amplitude.

Chiral magnets such as MnSi, FeGe or Cu2OSeO3 exhibit a non-centrosymmetric lattice structure which lacks inversion symmetry. The resulting Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction originating from weak spin-orbit coupling stabilizes smooth modulated magnetic textures, namely helices and skyrmions. In this thesis, we study the properties of helimagnets which are systems with a magnetic helix as ground state. First, we examine the consequences of the helical texture for spin wave excitations, so-called helimagnons. We investigate magnon-focusing effects, i.e. magnon flow in very specific directions, which result from flat bands occurring in the helimagnon band structure when the momentum component perpendicular to the helix axis is large. We show that the softness of the Goldstone mode leads to a large dissipation even at very small frequencies cut off only by magnetocrystalline anisotropies or by a magnetic field. Finally, we discuss that dipolar interactions induce non-reciprocal behavior of the spectrum at finite fields and momenta, i.e. the spectrum is not symmetric under reversing the momentum anymore. We calculate the Brillouin light scattering cross section and compare it to experimental results obtained by N. Ogawa [1]. Then, we consider reorientation processes of the helix axis due to an applied magnetic field. We compare the results to magnetic force microscopy measurements in Cu2OSeO3 performed by P. Milde et al. [2]. Afterwards, we point out that the skyrmion lattice orientation has singular points, i.e. points where the orientation is not determined, as a function of the magnetic field direction which is a consequence of the Poincaré-Hopf theorem. Afterwards, we turn to excitations in the form of the basic defects in helimagnets: disclinations and dislocations. Due to the lamellar nature of the helimagnetic texture, analogies to liquid crystals can often be used. We present an analytic parameterization of dislocations transferred from smectic liquid crystals and illustrate that dislocations carry a topological skyrmion charge. We examine dislocation motion in the presence of weak pinning due to random impurities. We derive a Thiele-Langevin equation for the dislocation position which effectively describes one dimensional motion. When reducing the system to two dimensions, this reveals ultra slow anomalous Sinai diffusion which may explain the very long time scales observed in several experiments [3,4]. Eventually, we present our work on domain walls in helimagnets. In magnetic force microscopy experiments performed by P. Schoenherr [5], we have identified three domain wall types. At small angles between the two domains, curvature walls appear. At intermediate angles, one can observe zig-zag disclination walls and at large angles, dislocation walls occur. We present analytical descriptions for curvature and dislocation walls, which we compare to micromagnetic simulation results obtained by J. Masell [5], and comment on the non-trivial topology of helimagnetic domain walls. [1] N. Ogawa, L. Köhler, M. Garst, S. Toyoda, S. Seki, and Y. Tokura, In preparation (2019). [2] P. Milde, E. Neuber, P. Ritzinger, L. Köhler, M. Garst, A. Bauer, C. Pfleiderer, H. Berger, and L. M. Eng, In preparation (2019). [3] A. Dussaux, P. Schoenherr, K. Koumpouras, J. Chico, K. Chang, L. Lorenzelli, N. Kanazawa, Y. Tokura, M. Garst, A. Bergman, C. L. Degen, and D. Meier, Nature Communications 7, 12430 (2016). [4] A. Bauer, A. Chacon, M. Wagner, M. Halder, R. Georgii, A. Rosch, C. Pfleiderer, and M. Garst, Physical Review B 95, 024429 (2017). [5] P. Schoenherr, J. Müller, L. Köhler, A. Rosch, N. Kanazawa, Y. Tokura, M. Garst, and D. Meier, Nature Physics 14, 465 (2018).:Introduction 1. Introduction to chiral magnets 1.1. Helimagnets 1.1.1. Magnetic phase diagram of chiral magnets 1.2. Skyrmions 1.2.1. Topology 1.2.2. Magnetic skyrmions 1.2.3. Skyrmion motion 1.2.4. Emergent electrodynamics 1.3. Model for chiral magnets 2. Spin waves in helimagnets 2.1. Linear spin wave theory for helimagnons 2.1.1. Fluctuations in the harmonic approximation 2.1.2. Spectrum at small momenta and fields 2.1.3. Frequency broadening from Gilbert damping 2.2. Magnon-focusing effects 2.3. Enhanced local dissipation 2.3.1. Global static susceptibility in the limit k, k' → 0 2.3.2. Local damping 2.4. Non-reciprocity 2.4.1. Non-reciprocity of the spectrum 2.4.2. Brillouin light scattering cross section 3. Orientation of magnetic order 3.1. Helix reorientation transition in MnSi 3.1.1. Effective Landau potential for the helix pitch 3.1.2. Experimental results 3.2. Helix reorientation in Cu2OSeO3 3.3. Skyrmion lattice orientation 4. Disclinations and dislocations 4.1. Liquid crystals 4.1.1. Types of liquid crystals 4.1.2. Energetics of liquid crystals 4.2. Disclinations 4.2.1. Elasticity theory for disclinations 4.3. Dislocations 4.3.1. Volterra process and Burgers vector 4.3.2. Elasticity theory for dislocations 4.3.3. Mermin-Ho relation in helimagnets 4.3.4. Topological skyrmion charge 5. Dislocation motion 5.1. Thiele approach for one helimagnetic dislocation 5.1.1. Motion in the presence of pinning 5.1.2. Corrections from elastic deformations 5.2. Dislocation diffusion 5.2.1. Sinai diffusion and toy model simulations 5.2.2. Susceptibility with Sinai diffusion 5.2.3. Dislocation string 6. Domain walls 6.1. Experimental and numerical methods 6.2. Domain wall types in helimagnets 6.3. Energetics of helimagnetic domain walls 6.3.1. Curvature wall 6.3.2. Dislocation wall 6.4. Topological domain wall structures 7. Discussion and outlook Appendix A. Details on helimagnons B. Formalism of linear-spin wave theory in helimagnets C. Deviations from the helix Bibliography List of Figures Index Danksagung

Motivated by the recent experimental progress in the search for Majorana fermions, we identify signatures of topological superconductivity and propose realistic experiments to observe these signatures. In the first part of this thesis, we study charge transport through a topological superconductor with a pair of Majorana end states, coupled to leads via quantum dots with resonant levels. The nonlocality of the Majorana bound states opens the possibility of Cooper pair splitting with nonlocal shot noise. In the space of quantum dot energy levels, we find a characteristic four-peaked cloverlike pattern for the strength of noise due to Cooper pair splitting, distinct from the single ellipsoidal peak found in the absence of Majorana end states. Semiconductor-superconductor hybrid systems are promising candidates for the realiza- tion Majorana fermions and topological order in solid state devices. In the second part, we show that the topological order is mirrored in the excitation spectra and can be observed in nonlinear Coulomb blockade transport through a ring-shaped nanowire. Especially, the ex- citation spectrum is almost independent of magnetic flux in the topologically trivial phase but acquires a characteristic h/e magnetic flux periodicity in the nontrivial phase. The transition between the trivial and nontrivial phase is reflected in the closing and reopening of an excitation gap. In the third part, we investigate characteristic features in the spin response of doped three-dimensional topological insulators with odd-parity unequal-spin superconducting pairing, which are predicted to have gapless Majorana surface modes. These Majorana modes contribute to the spin response, giving rise to a characteristic temperature behavior of the Knight shift and the spin-lattice relaxation time in magnetic resonance experiments.