Digital quantum simulation of Floquet symmetry-protected topological phases
Abstract
Quantum many-body systems away from equilibrium host a rich variety of exotic phenomena that are forbidden by equilibrium thermodynamics. A prominent example is that of discrete time crystals1–8, in which time-translational symmetry is spontaneously broken in periodically driven systems. Pioneering experiments have observed signatures of time crystalline phases with trapped ions9,10, solid-state spin systems11–15, ultracold atoms16,17 and superconducting qubits18–20. Here we report the observation of a distinct type of non-equilibrium state of matter, Floquet symmetry-protected topological phases, which are implemented through digital quantum simulation with an array of programmable superconducting qubits. We observe robust long-lived temporal correlations and subharmonic temporal response for the edge spins over up to 40 driving cycles using a circuit of depth exceeding 240 and acting on 26 qubits. We demonstrate that the subharmonic response is independent of the initial state, and experimentally map out a phase boundary between the Floquet symmetry-protected topological and thermal phases. Our results establish a versatile digital simulation approach to exploring exotic non-equilibrium phases of matter with current noisy intermediate-scale quantum processors21.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jul 20, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1038/s41586-022-04854-3
Entities
People
- Alexey V Gorshkov
- Chao Song
- Dong-Ling Deng
- Fangli Liu
- Feitong Jin
- Hang Dong
- Haohua Wang
- Hekang Li
- Jiachen Chen
- Jinfeng Deng
- Ke Wang
- Pengfei Zhang
- Qiujiang Guo
- Shibo Xu
- Thomas Iadecola
- Wenhui Ren
- Wenjie Jiang
- Xu Zhang
- Xuhao Zhu
- Yu Gao
- Zhe-Xuan Gong
- Zhen Wang