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arXiv:1906.05158 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Topological ordering in the Majorana toric code

Alexander Ziesen, Fabian Hassler, Ananda Roy

Published Sep 6, 2019• 5 citations
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Abstract

At zero temperature, a two-dimensional lattice of Majorana zero modes on mesoscopic superconducting islands exhibits a topologically ordered toric code phase. Recently, a Landau field theory was used to describe the different phases of the aforementioned system and the phase transitions separating them. While the field theory provides details on the properties of the system close to the phase transitions, signatures of topological ordering in the different phases have not been computed. This is the primary goal of this work. We describe a lattice gauge theory of the Majorana toric code in terms of $\mathrm{U}(1)$ matter fields coupled to an emergent ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ gauge field. Subsequently, we use a generalized Wilson-loop order parameter, the equal-time Fredenhagen-Marcu order parameter, to characterize the topological ordering in the different phases. Our computation provides evidence of the toric code phase both in the Mott-insulator and the charge-$2e$ superconductor phases, while showing that the toric code phase disappears in the charge-$e$ superconductor phase. In addition, we perturbatively analyze the influence of Cooper pair tunneling on the topological gap of the toric code in the limit of strong charging energy and show that the toric code phase is, in fact, stabilized by the Cooper pair tunneling. Our results are relevant for experimental realizations of the Majorana toric code.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.100.104508

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At zero temperature, a two-dimensional lattice of Majorana zero modes on mesoscopic superconducting islands exhibits a topologically ordered toric code phase. Recently, a Landau field theory was used to describe the different phases of the aforementioned system and the phase transitions separating them. While the field theory provides details on the properties of the system close to the phase transitions, signatures of topological ordering in the different phases have not been computed. This is the primary goal of this work. We describe a lattice gauge theory of the Majorana toric code in terms of U(1)\mathrm{U}(1)U(1) matter fields coupled to an emergent Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ gauge field. Subsequently, we use a generalized Wilson-loop order parameter, the equal-time Fredenhagen-Marcu order parameter, to characterize the topological ordering in the different phases. Our computation provides evidence of the toric code phase both in the Mott-insulator and the charge-2e2e2e superconductor phases, while showing that the toric code phase disappears in the charge-eee superconductor phase. In addition, we perturbatively analyze the influence of Cooper pair tunneling on the topological gap of the toric code in the limit of strong charging energy and show that the toric code phase is, in fact, stabilized by the Cooper pair tunneling. Our results are relevant for experimental realizations of the Majorana toric code.
At zero temperature, a two-dimensional lattice of Majorana zero modes on mesoscopic superconducting islands has a topologically ordered toric-code phase. Recently, a Landau field theory has been proposed for the system that captures its different phases and the associated phase transitions. It was shown that with the increase of Josephson tunneling between the islands, a continuous symmetry-breaking three-dimensional (3D)-XY transition gets transformed into a discrete symmetry-breaking 3D-Ising transition through a couple of tricritical points and first-order transitions. Using the proposed field theory, we analyze the charge response of the system at the different continuous phase transitions. We calculate the universal conductivity at the 3D-XY transitions and the change in the superconducting density at the Ising transition using 1/NNN expansion. Furthermore, by computing a one-loop correction to the field theory, we show that an additional tricritical point is likely to be present in the phase diagram. Finally, we provide a mean-field calculation that supports the earlier proposed field theory.
The toric code based on Majorana fermions on mesoscopic superconducting islands is a promising candidate for quantum information processing. In the limit of vanishing Cooper-pair tunneling, it has been argued that the phase transition separating the topologically ordered phase of the toric code from the trivial one is in the universality class of the (2+1)D XY model. On the other hand, in the limit of infinitely large Cooper-pair tunneling, the phase transition is in the universality class of the (2+1)D Ising model. In this work, we treat the case of finite Cooper-pair tunneling and address the question of how the continuous XY symmetry breaking phase transition turns into a discrete Z_{2} symmetry breaking one when the Cooper-pair tunneling rate is increased. We show that this happens through a couple of tricritical points and first order phase transitions. Using a Jordan-Wigner transformation, we map the problem to that of spins coupled to quantum rotors and subsequently, propose a Landau field theory for this model that matches the known results in the respective limits. We calculate the effective field theories and provide the relevant critical exponents for the different phase transitions. Our results are relevant for predicting the stability of the topological phase in realistic experimental implementations.
Majorana zero modes (MZM-s) occurring at the edges of a one-dimensional (1D), ppp-wave, spinless superconductor, in the absence of fluctuations of the phase of the superconducting order parameter, are quintessential examples of topologically protected zero-energy modes occurring at the edges of 1D symmetry-protected topological phases. In this work, we numerically investigate the fate of the topological phase in the presence of phase fluctuations using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique. To that end, we consider a one-dimensional array of MZM-s on mesoscopic superconducting islands at zero temperature. Cooper-pair and MZM-assisted single-electron tunneling, together with finite charging energy of the mesoscopic islands, give rise to a rich phase diagram of this model. We show that the system can be in either a Mott-insulating phase, a Luttinger liquid (LL) phase of Cooper pairs, or a second gapless phase. In contrast to the LL of Cooper pairs, this second phase is characterized by nonlocal string correlation functions which decay algebraically due to gapless charge-eee excitations. The three phases are separated from each other by phase transitions of either Kosterlitz-Thouless or Ising type. Using a Jordan-Wigner transformation, we map the system to a generalized Bose-Hubbard model with two types of hopping and use DMRG to analyze the different phases and the phase transitions.
Although the topological order is known as a quantum order in quantum many-body systems, it seems that there is not a one-to-one correspondence between topological phases and quantum phases. As a well-known example, it has been shown that all one-dimensional (1D) quantum phases are topologically trivial [X. Chen et al., Phys. Rev. B 83, 035107 (2011)]. By such facts, it seems a challenging task to understand when a quantum phase transition between different topological models necessarily reveals different topological classes of them. In this paper, we make an attempt to consider this problem by studying a phase transition between two different quantum phases which have a universal topological phase. We define a Hamiltonian as interpolation of the toric code model with Z2{Z}_{2}Z2​ topological order and the color code model with ${Z}_{2}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{Z}_{2}$ topological order on a hexagonal lattice. We show such a model is exactly mapped to many copies of 1D quantum Ising model in transverse field by rewriting the Hamiltonian in a new complete basis. Consequently, we show that the universal topological phase of the color code model and the toric code model reflects in the 1D nature of the phase transition. We also consider the expectation value of Wilson loops by a perturbative calculation and show that behavior of the Wilson loop captures the nontopological nature of the quantum phase transition. The result on the point of phase transition also shows that the color code model is strongly robust against the toric code model.
Stabilizer codes provide exact lattice realizations of bosonic topological orders. In contrast, systematic stabilizer descriptions of intrinsically fermionic topological phases remain much less developed. In this work, we introduce Majorana-Pauli stabilizer codes, a class of exactly solvable fermionic lattice models whose stabilizers are built from both generalized Pauli operators and Majorana operators. As a main example, we construct an exactly solvable stabilizer realization of the fermionic toric code: an intrinsically fermionic Z2\mathbb Z_2Z2​ topological order in (2+1)(2{+}1)(2+1) dimensions, using Z8\mathbb Z_8Z8​ Pauli operators coupled to Majorana modes. Within this stabilizer framework, the anyons, string operators, fusion rules, and braiding statistics all follow naturally from the stabilizer algebra. More broadly, we show that the fermionic toric code belongs to a duality web generated by anyon condensation and by gauging or ungauging bosonic or fermionic symmetries. This web connects bosonic topological orders, symmetry-enriched topological (SET) phases, and both bosonic and fermionic symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases, all within a common stabilizer description. We extend this construction to all Abelian fermionic topological orders with gapped boundaries and to fermionic SPT phases whose fully gauged theories are Abelian. Going beyond Majorana operators, we introduce fermionic versions of the clock and shift operators and use them to construct an exact bosonization map for ZDF\mathbb Z_D^FZDF​ symmetries for DDD even. Using this, we realize a stabilizer model for a nontrivial Z8F\mathbb Z_8^FZ8F​ fermionic SPT phase with no free-fermion analog. Altogether, these results extend the stabilizer-code paradigm to a broad class of intrinsically fermionic phases bridging fermionic quantum many-body physics to quantum error correction.
Kitaev's toric code is an exactly solvable model with Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​-topological order, which has potential applications in quantum computation and error correction. However, a direct experimental realization remains an open challenge. Here, we propose a building block for Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ lattice gauge theories coupled to dynamical matter and demonstrate how it allows for an implementation of the toric-code ground state and its topological excitations. This is achieved by introducing separate matter excitations on individual plaquettes, whose motion induce the required plaquette terms. The proposed building block is realized in the second-order coupling regime and is well suited for implementations with superconducting qubits. Furthermore, we propose a pathway to prepare topologically nontrivial initial states during which a large gap on the order of the underlying coupling strength is present. This is verified by both analytical arguments and numerical studies. Moreover, we outline experimental signatures of the ground-state wave function and introduce a minimal braiding protocol. Detecting a $\ensuremath{\pi}$-phase shift between Ramsey fringes in this protocol reveals the anyonic excitations of the toric-code Hamiltonian in a system with only three triangular plaquettes. Our work paves the way for realizing non-Abelian anyons in analog quantum simulators.