Majorana Fermions in three dimensions

Majorana fermions are widely expected to be discovered soon in the laboratory. These particles are interesting by themselves due to their exotic statistics. They also offer the means of performing quantum computation in a conceptually new and intrinsically robust way. In this talk I introduce the general properties of Majorana fermions with an emphasis on how they can be employed to encode and manipulate quantum information. I also discuss whether or not Majorana fermions violate Bell-type inequalities. Finally, I present a quantum algorithm for the evaluation of Jones polynomials that emerges from a quantum simulation with Majorana-like particles.