The idea of topological quantum computation (TQC) is to store and manipulate quantum information in an intrinsically fault-tolerant manner by utilizing the physics of topologically ordered phases of matter. Currently, one of the most promising platforms for a topological qubit is in terms of Majorana fermion zero modes (MZMs) in spin-orbit coupled superconducting nanowires. However, the topologically robust operations that are possible with MZMs can be efficiently simulated on a classical computer and are therefore not sufficient for realizing a universal gate set for TQC. Here, we show that an array of coupled semiconductor-superconductor nanowires with MZM edge states can be used to realize a more sophisticated type of non-Abelian defect: a genon in an Ising $\times$ Ising topological state. This leads to a possible implementation of the missing topologically protected $π/8$ phase gate and thus universal TQC based on semiconductor-superconductor nanowire technology. We provide detailed numerical estimates of the relevant energy scales, which we show to lie within accessible ranges.
The idea of topological quantum computation (TQC) is to store and manipulate quantum information in an intrinsically fault-tolerant manner by utilizing the physics of topologically ordered phases of matter. Currently, one of the most promising platforms for a topological qubit is in terms of Majorana fermion zero modes (MZMs) in spin-orbit coupled superconducting nanowires. However, the topologically robust operations that are possible with MZMs can be efficiently simulated on a classical computer and are therefore not sufficient for realizing a universal gate set for TQC. Here, we show that an array of coupled semiconductor-superconductor nanowires with MZM edge states can be used to realize a more sophisticated type of non-Abelian defect: a genon in an Ising × Ising topological state. This leads to a possible implementation of the missing topologically protected π/8 phase gate and thus universal TQC based on semiconductor-superconductor nanowire technology. We provide detailed numerical estimates of the relevant energy scales, which we show to lie within accessible ranges.
Topological quantum computing seeks to store and manipulate information in a protected manner using topological phases of matter. Information encoded in the degenerate state space of pairs of non-Abelian anyons or defects is robust to local perturbations, reducing its susceptiblity to environmental errors and potentially providing a scalable approach to quantum computing. However, topological quantum computing faces significant challenges, not least of which is identifying an experimentally accessible platform supporting non-Abelian topological physics. In this thesis, we critically analyze topological quantum computing with Majorana zero modes, non-Abelian defects of a topological superconductor. We identify intrinsic error sources for Majorana-based systems and propose quantum computing architectures that minimize their effects. Additionally, we consider a new approach for realizing and detecting non-Abelian topological defects in fractional Chern insulators. Topological quantum computing is predicated on the idea that braiding non-Abelian anyons adiabatically can implement quantum gates fault tolerantly. However, any braiding experiment will necessarily depart from the strict adiabatic limit. We begin by analyzing the nature of diabatic errors for anyon braiding, paying particular attention to how such errors scale with braiding time. We find that diabatic errors are unfavorably large and worryingly sensitive to details of the time evolution. We present a measurement-based correction protocol for such errors, and illustrate its application in a particular Majorana-based qubit design. We next propose designs for Majorana-based qubits operated entirely by a measurement-based protocol, thereby avoiding the diabatic errors discussed above. Our designs can be scaled into large two dimensional arrays amenable to long-term quantum computing goals, whose core components are testable in near-term devices. These qubits are robust to quasiparticle poisoning, anticipated to be one of the dominant error sources coupling to Majorana zero modes. We demonstrate that our designs support topologically protected Clifford operations and can be augmented to a universal gate set without requiring additional control parameters.While topological protection greatly suppresses errors, residual coupling to noise limits the lifetimes of our proposed Majorana-based qubits. We analyze the dephasing times for our quasiparticle-poisoning-protected qubits by calculating their charge distribution using a particle number-conserving formalism. We find that fluctuations in the electromagnetic environment couple to an exponentially suppressed topological dipole moment. We estimate dephasing times due to 1/f noise, thermal quasiparticle excitations, and phonons for different qubit sizes.The residual errors discussed above will necessarily require error correction for a sufficiently long quantum computation. We develop physically motivated noise models for Majorana-based qubits that can be used to analyze the performance of a quantum error correcting code. We apply this noise model to estimate pseudo-thresholds for a small subsystem code, identifying the relative importance of difference error processes from a fault tolerance perspective. Our results emphasize the necessity of suppressing long-lived quasiparticle excitations that can spread across the code.Finally, we turn our attention to a different platform that could host non-Abelian topological defects: fractional Chern insulators in graphene. We study the edge states of fractional Chern insulators using the field theory of fractional quantum Hall edges supplemented with a symmetry action. We find that lattice symmetries impose a quantized momentum difference for edge electrons in a fractional state of a C=2 Chern band. This momentum difference can be used to selectively contact the different edge states, thereby allowing detection of topological defects in the bulk with a standard four terminal measurement. Our proposal could be implemented in graphene subject to an artificially patterned lattice.
The advancement of information processing into the realm of quantum mechanics promises a transcendence in computational power that will enable problems to be solved which are completely beyond the known abilities of any "classical" computer, including any potential non-quantum technologies the future may bring. However, the fragility of quantum states poses a challenging obstacle for realization of a fault-tolerant quantum computer. The topological approach to quantum computation proposes to surmount this obstacle by using special physical systems -- non-Abelian topologically ordered phases of matter -- that would provide intrinsic fault-tolerance at the hardware level. The so-called "Ising-type" non-Abelian topological order is likely to be physically realized in a number of systems, but it can only provide a universal gate set (a requisite for quantum computation) if one has the ability to perform certain dynamical topology-changing operations on the system. Until now, practical methods of implementing these operations were unknown. Here we show how the necessary operations can be physically implemented for Ising-type systems realized in the recently proposed superconductor-semiconductor and superconductor-topological insulator heterostructures. Furthermore, we specify routines employing these methods to generate a computationally universal gate set. We are consequently able to provide a schematic blueprint for a fully topologically-protected Ising based quantum computer using currently available materials and techniques. This may serve as a starting point for attempts to construct a fault-tolerant quantum computer, which will have applications to cryptanalysis, drug design, efficient simulation of quantum many-body systems, solution of large systems of linear equations, searching large databases, engineering future quantum computers, and -- most importantly -- those applications which no one in our classical era has the prescience to foresee.
Universal quantum computation (UQC) using Majorana fermions on a two-dimensional topological superconducting (TS) medium remains an outstanding open problem. This is because the quantum gate set that can be generated by braiding of the Majorana fermions does not include any two-qubit gate and also no single-qubit $\ensuremath{\pi}/8$ phase gate. In principle, it is possible to create these crucial extra gates using quantum interference of Majorana fermion currents. However, it is not clear if the motion of the various order parameter defects (vortices, domain walls, etc.), to which the Majorana fermions are bound in a TS medium, can be quantum coherent. We show that these obstacles can be overcome using a semiconductor quantum wire network in the vicinity of an s-wave superconductor, by constructing topologically protected two-qubit gates and any arbitrary single-qubit phase gate in a topologically unprotected manner, which can be error corrected using magic-state distillation. Thus our strategy, using a judicious combination of topologically protected and unprotected gate operations, realizes UQC on a quantum wire network with a remarkably high error threshold of 0.14 as compared to ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ to ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ in ordinary unprotected quantum computation.
Quantum computers hold the promise of solving computational problems that are intractable for classical computers, by harnessing the principles of quantum mechanics. However, quantum computations are highly susceptible to noise and decoherence, which place strict limits on the size and depth of the circuits that can be reliably executed on current hardware. Topological quantum computing (TQC) has emerged as one of the promising approaches to building fault-tolerant quantum computers. The key idea is to store quantum information in the global properties of a physical system, making it naturally resilient to the local noise and errors that affect conventional qubits. This thesis focuses on synthetic topological quantum matter, the physical platform on which TQC is built, and investigates its electronic structure and topological properties. We study the conditions under which these systems enter a topological phase and host Majorana zero modes (MZMs), exotic zero-energy quasiparticles that appear at the boundaries of the system. MZMs are the key building block of TQC, as their quantum mechanical properties allow them to encode and process quantum information in a way that is protected from errors. We demonstrate the existence of MZMs in two canoni- cal topological systems, the Kitaev chain and the semiconducting-superconducting nanowire. To address the experimental challenge of detecting MZMs, we develop an optical spectroscopy technique based on excitonic interactions, which provides clear and measurable signatures of the topological phase. We also explore the variational quantum eigensolver as a quantum algorithmic approach to approximating the ground-state energy of the many-body spectrum of topological systems. Furthermore, we discuss the practical setups for topological quantum matter and simulate them through numerical analysis. Altogether, we present several theoretical and numerical methods that can be used for numerical simulations and practical purposes of detecting MZMs in topological quantum matter.
We propose and analyze a physical system capable of performing topological quantum computation with Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in a one-dimensional topological superconductor (1DTS). One of the leading methods to realize quantum gates in a 1DTS is to use T junctions, which allows one to maneuver MZMs in such a manner as to achieve braiding. In this paper, we propose a scheme for implementing quantum logical gates in a purely one-dimensional geometry without T junctions, instead replacing it with an auxiliary qubit. This has the additional benefit of introducing a non-Clifford gate, corresponding to one- and two-logical-qubit Z rotations. We first design a topologically protected logical Z gate based entirely on local interactions within the 1DTS. Using an auxiliary qubit coupled to the topological superconductors, we extend the Z gate to non-Clifford single- and multiqubit arbitrary rotations with partial topological protection. Finally, to perform universal quantum computing, we introduce a scheme for performing arbitrary unitary rotations, albeit without topological protection. We develop a formalism based on unitary braids which creates transitions between different topological phases of the 1DTS system. The unitary formalism can be simply converted to an equivalent adiabatic scheme, which we numerically simulate, and we show that high-fidelity operations should be possible with reasonable parameters.
A paradigm to build a quantum computer, based on topological invariants is highlighted. The identities in the ensemble of knots, links and braids originally discovered in relation to topological quantum field theory are shown: how they define Artin braid group -- the mathematical basis of topological quantum computation (TQC). Vector spaces of TQC correspond to associated strings of particle interactions, and TQC operates its calculations on braided strings of special physical quasiparticles -- anyons -- with non-Abelian statistics. The physical platform of TQC is to use the topological quantum numbers of such small groups of anyons as qubits and to perform operations on these qubits by exchanging the anyons, both within the groups that form the qubits and, for multi-qubit gates, between groups. By braiding two or more anyons, they acquire up a topological phase or Berry phase similar to that found in the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Topological matter such as fractional quantum Hall systems and novel discovered topological insulators open the way to form system of anyons -- Majorana fermions -- with the unique property of encoding and processing quantum information in a naturally fault-tolerant way. In the topological insulators, due to its fundamental attribute of topological surface state occurrence of the bound, Majorana fermions are generated at its heterocontact with superconductors. One of the key operations of TQC -- braiding of non-Abelian anyons: it is illustrated how it can be implemented in one-dimensional topological isolator wire networks.