Higher-order topological phases give rise to new bulk and boundary physics, as well as new classes of topological phase transitions. While the realization of higher-order topological phases has been confirmed in many platforms by detecting the existence of gapless boundary modes, a direct determination of the higher-order topology and related topological phase transitions through the bulk in experiments has still been lacking. To bridge the gap, in this work we carry out the simulation of a two-dimensional second-order topological phase in a superconducting qubit. Owing to the great flexibility and controllability of the quantum simulator, we observe the realization of higher-order topology directly through the measurement of the pseudo-spin texture in momentum space of the bulk for the first time, in sharp contrast to previous experiments based on the detection of gapless boundary modes in real space. Also through the measurement of the evolution of pseudo-spin texture with parameters, we further observe novel topological phase transitions from the second-order topological phase to the trivial phase, as well as to the first-order topological phase with nonzero Chern number. Our work sheds new light on the study of higher-order topological phases and topological phase transitions.

Simulation of higher-order topological phases and related topological phase Transitions in a Superconducting Qubit

The conventional characterization of periodically driven systems usually necessitates the time-domain information beyond Floquet bands, hence lacking universal and direct schemes of measuring Floquet topological invariants. Here we propose a unified theory, based on quantum quenches, to characterize generic $d$-dimensional Floquet topological phases in which the topological invariants are constructed with only minimal information of the static Floquet bands. For a $d$-dimensional phase that is initially static and trivial, we introduce the quench dynamics by suddenly turning on the periodic driving. We show that the quench dynamics exhibits emergent topological patterns in ($d\ensuremath{-}1$)-dimensional momentum subspaces where Floquet bands cross, from which the Floquet topological invariants are directly obtained. This result provides a simple and unified characterization in which one can extract the number of conventional and anomalous Floquet boundary modes and identify the topologically protected singularities in the phase bands. These applications are illustrated with one- and two-dimensional models that are readily accessible in cold-atom experiments. Our study opens a new framework for the characterization of Floquet topological phases.

Unified Theory to Characterize Floquet Topological Phases by Quench Dynamics.

Higher-order topological phases (HOTPs) are systems with topologically protected in-gap boundary states localized at their ( d - n ) -dimensional boundaries, with d the system dimension and n the order of the topology. This work proposes a dynamics-based characterization of one large class of Z-type HOTPs without specifically relying on any crystalline symmetry considerations. The key element of our innovative approach is to connect quantum quench dynamics with nested configurations of the so-called band inversion surfaces (BISs) of momentum-space Hamiltonians as a sum of operators from the Clifford algebra (a condition that can be partially relaxed), thereby making it possible to dynamically detect each and every order of topology on an equal footing. Given that experiments on synthetic topological matter can directly measure the winding of certain pseudospin texture to determine topological features of BISs, the topological invariants defined through nested BISs are all within reach of ongoing experiments. Further, the necessity of having nested BISs in defining higher-order topology offers a unique perspective to investigate and engineer higher-order topological phase transitions.

Direct dynamical characterization of higher-order topological phases with nested band inversion surfaces

An extension of the celebrated bulk-boundary correspondence is proposed and a quantum simulator built with NV centers is experimentally used to prove an enhanced capability for studying topological physics.

https://link.aps.org/pdf/10.1103/PRXQuantum.2.020320

Quantum Dynamical Characterization and Simulation of Topological Phases With High-Order Band Inversion Surfaces

The notion of topological phases extended to dynamical systems stimulates extensive studies, of which the characterization of nonequilibrium topological invariants is a central issue and usually necessitates the information of quantum dynamics in both the time and momentum dimensions. Here, we propose the topological holographic quench dynamics in synthetic dimension, and also show it provides a highly efficient scheme to characterize photonic topological phases. A pseudospin model is constructed with ring resonators in a synthetic lattice formed by frequencies of light, and the quench dynamics is induced by initializing a trivial state, which evolves under a topological Hamiltonian. Our key prediction is that the complete topological information of the Hamiltonian is encoded in quench dynamics solely in the time dimension, and is further mapped to lower-dimensional space, manifesting the holographic features of the dynamics. In particular, two fundamental time scales emerge in the dynamical evolution, with one mimicking the topological band on the momentum dimension and the other characterizing the residue time evolution of the state after the quench. For this, a universal duality between the quench dynamics and the equilibrium topological phase of the spin model is obtained in the time dimension by extracting information from the field evolution dynamics in modulated ring systems in simulations. This work also shows that the photonic synthetic frequency dimension provides an efficient and powerful way to explore the topological nonequilibrium dynamics. Topological holographic quench dynamics in a synthetic frequency dimension studied in modulated ring system shows the universal bulk-surface duality with complete topological information being encoded in the single time variable.

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Topological holographic quench dynamics in a synthetic frequency dimension.

The detection of topological phases of matter has become a central issue in recent years. Conventionally, the realization of a specific topological phase in condensed matter physics relies on probing the underlying surface band dispersion or quantum transport signature of a real material, which may be imperfect or even absent. On the other hand, quantum simulation offers an alternative approach to directly measure the topological invariant on a universal quantum computer. However, experimentally demonstrating high-dimensional topological phases remains a challenge due to the technical limitations of current experimental platforms. Here, we investigate the three-dimensional topological insulators in the AIII (chiral unitary) symmetry class, which yet lack experimental realization. Using the nuclear magnetic resonance system, we experimentally demonstrate their topological properties, where a dynamical quenching approach is adopted and the dynamical bulk-boundary correspondence in the momentum space is observed. As a result, the topological invariants are measured with high precision on the band-inversion surface, exhibiting robustness to the decoherence effect. Our Letter paves the way toward the quantum simulation of topological phases of matter in higher dimensions and more complex systems through controllable quantum phases transitions.

Quantum Phases of Three-Dimensional Chiral Topological Insulators on a Spin Quantum Simulator.

Abstract Noise is ubiquitous in real quantum systems, leading to non-Hermitian quantum dynamics, and may affect the fundamental states of matter. Here we report in an experiment a quantum simulation of the two-dimensional non-Hermitian quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) model using the nuclear magnetic resonance processor. Unlike the usual experiments using auxiliary qubits, we develop a stochastic average approach based on the stochastic Schrödinger equation to realize the non-Hermitian dissipative quantum dynamics, which has advantages in saving the quantum simulation sources and simplifying the implementation of quantum gates. We demonstrate the stability of dynamical topology against weak noise and observe two types of dynamical topological transitions driven by strong noise. Moreover, a region where the emergent topology is always robust regardless of the noise strength is observed. Our work shows a feasible quantum simulation approach for dissipative quantum dynamics with stochastic Schrödinger equation and opens a route to investigate non-Hermitian dynamical topological physics. 

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Experimental quantum simulation of non-Hermitian dynamical topological states using stochastic Schrödinger equation

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Topological quantum computation (TQC) is one of the most striking architectures that can realize fault-tolerant quantum computers. In TQC, the logical space and the quantum gates are topologically protected, i.e., robust against local disturbances. The topological protection, however, requires rather complicated lattice models and hard-to-manipulate dynamics; even the simplest system that can realize universal TQC–the Fibonacci anyon system–lacks a physical realization, let alone braiding the non-Abelian anyons. Here, we propose a disk model that can realize the Fibonacci anyon system, and construct the topologically protected logical spaces with the Fibonacci anyons. Via braiding the Fibonacci anyons, we can implement universal quantum gates on the logical space. Our proposal is platform-independent. As a demonstration, we implement a topological Hadamard gate on a logical qubit through a sequence of 15 braiding operations of three Fibonacci anyons with merely 2 nuclear spin qubits. The gate ﬁdelity reaches 97.18% by randomized benchmarking. We further prove by experiment that the logical space and Hadamard gate are topologically protected: local disturbances due to thermal ﬂuctuations result in a global phase only. Our work is a proof of principle of TQC and paves the way towards fault-tolerant quantum computation.

Yishan Li

Papers

Quantum Phases of Three-Dimensional Chiral Topological Insulators on a Spin Quantum Simulator.

Experimental quantum simulation of non-Hermitian dynamical topological states using stochastic Schrödinger equation

Experimental quantum simulation of non-Hermitian dynamical topological states using stochastic Schrödinger equation

Experimental realization of a topologically protected Hadamard gate via braiding Fibonacci anyons

Experimental quantum simulation of a topologically protected Hadamard gate via braiding Fibonacci anyons