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arXiv:1601.06247 · Physical Review A

Experimental observation of topological transitions in interacting multispin systems

Zhihuang Luo, Chao Lei, Jun Li, Xinfang Nie, Zhaokai Li, Xinhua Peng, Jiangfeng Du

Published May 26, 2016• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Topologically ordered phase has emerged as one of most exciting concepts that not only broadens our understanding of phases of matter, but also has been found to have potential application in fault-tolerant quantum computation. The direct measurement of topological properties, however, is still a challenge, especially in interacting quantum system. Here we realize two to four spin one-dimensional Heisenberg chains using nuclear magnetic resonance simulators and observe interaction-induced topological transitions, where Berry curvature in the parameter space of Hamiltonian is probed by means of dynamical response and then the first Chern number is extracted by integrating the curvature over the closed surface. The utilized experimental method provides a powerful means to explore topological phenomena in quantum systems with many-body interactions.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.93.052116

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Topologically ordered phase has emerged as one of most exciting concepts that not only broadens our understanding of phases of matter, but also has been found to have potential application in fault-tolerant quantum computation. The direct measurement of topological properties, however, is still a challenge, especially in interacting quantum system. Here we realize two to four spin one-dimensional Heisenberg chains using nuclear magnetic resonance simulators and observe interaction-induced topological transitions, where Berry curvature in the parameter space of Hamiltonian is probed by means of dynamical response and then the first Chern number is extracted by integrating the curvature over the closed surface. The utilized experimental method provides a powerful means to explore topological phenomena in quantum systems with many-body interactions.
Topological phases have greatly improved our understanding of modern conception of phases of matter that go beyond the paradigm of symmetry breaking and are not described by local order parameters. Instead, characterization of topological phases requires the robust topological invariants, whereas measuring these global quantities presents an outstanding challenge for experiments, especially in interacting systems. Here we report the real-space observation of a symmetry-protected topological phase with interacting nuclear spins, and probe the interaction-induced transition between two topologically distinct phases, both of which are classified by many-body Chern numbers obtained from the dynamical response to the external magnetic fields. The resulting value of Chern number (Chˉ=1.958±0.070\bar{\mathcal{C}h} = 1.958 \pm 0.070Chˉ=1.958±0.070) demonstrates the robust ground state degeneracy, and also determines the number of nontrivial edge states. Our findings enable direct characterization of topological features of quantum many-body states through gradually decreasing the strength of the introduced external fields.
We propose an experimental scheme to simulate the dynamical quantum Hall effect and the related interaction-induced topological transition with a superconducting-qubit array. We show that a one-dimensional Heisenberg model with tunable parameters can be realized in an array of superconducting qubits. The quantized plateau, which is a feature of the dynamical quantum Hall effect, will emerge in the Berry curvature of the superconducting qubits as a function of the coupling strength between nearest-neighbor qubits. We numerically calculate the Berry curvatures of two-, four-, and six-qubit arrays and find that the interaction-induced topological transition can be easily observed with the simplest two-qubit array. Furthermore, we analyze some practical conditions in typical experiments for observing this dynamical quantum Hall effect.
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.
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Quantum metrology is deeply connected to quantum geometry, through the fundamental notion of quantum Fisher information. Inspired by advances in topological matter, it was recently suggested that the Berry curvature and Chern numbers of band structures can dictate strict lower bounds on metrological properties, hence establishing a strong connection between topology and quantum metrology. In this work, we provide a first experimental verification of such topological bounds, by performing optimal quantum multi-parameter estimation and achieving the best possible measurement precision. By emulating the band structure of a Chern insulator, we experimentally determine the metrological potential across a topological phase transition, and demonstrate strong enhancement in the topologically non-trivial regime. Our work opens the door to metrological applications empowered by topology, with potential implications for quantum many-body systems.
Topological orders are exotic phases of matter existing in strongly correlated quantum systems, which are beyond the usual symmetry description and cannot be distinguished by local order parameters. Here we report an experimental quantum simulation of the Wen-plaquette spin model with different topological orders in a nuclear magnetic resonance system, and observe the adiabatic transition between two Z(2) topological orders through a spin-polarized phase by measuring the nonlocal closed-string (Wilson loop) operator. Moreover, we also measure the entanglement properties of the topological orders. This work confirms the adiabatic method for preparing topologically ordered states and provides an experimental tool for further studies of complex quantum systems.