Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2402.14141 · SciPost Physics

Quantum state preparation of topological chiral spin liquids via Floquet engineering

Matthieu Mambrini, Didier Poilblanc

Published Jul 11, 2024• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In condensed matter, Chiral Spin Liquids (CSL) are quantum spin analogs of electronic Fractional Quantum Hall states (in the continuum) or Fractional Chern Insulators (on the lattice). As the latter, CSL are remarkable states of matter, exhibiting topological order and chiral edge modes. Preparing CSL on quantum simulators like cold atom platforms is still an open challenge. Here we propose a simple setup on a finite cluster of spin-1/2 located at the sites of a square lattice. Using a Resonating Valence Bond (RVB) non-chiral spin liquid as initial state on which fast time-modulations of strong nearest-neighbor Heisenberg couplings are applied, following different protocols (out-of-equilibrium quench or semi-adiabatic ramping of the drive), we show the slow emergence of such a CSL phase. An effective Floquet dynamics, obtained from a high-frequency Magnus expansion of the drive Hamiltonian, provides a very accurate and simple framework fully capturing the out-of-equilibrium dynamics. An analysis of the resulting prepared states in term of Projected Entangled Pair states gives further insights on the topological nature of the chiral phase. Finally, we discuss possible applications to quantum computing.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphys.17.1.011

Related papers

Floquet dynamical chiral spin liquid at finite frequency

Didier Poilblanc, Matthieu Mambrini, Nathan Goldman

Chiral Spin Liquids (CSL) are quantum spin analogs of electronic Fractional Chern Insulators. Their realizations on ultracold-atom or Rydberg-atom platforms remain very challenging. Recently, a setup of time-periodic modulations of nearest-neighbor Heisenberg couplings applied on an initial genuine spin liquid state on the square lattice has been proposed to stabilize a (Abelian) ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ CSL phase. In the high-frequency limit, it was shown that time evolution can be described in terms of a static effective chiral Hamiltonian. Here we revisit this proposal and consider drives at lower frequency in a regime where the high-frequency Magnus expansion fails. We show that a Dynamical CSL (DCSL) is nevertheless stabilized in a finite range of frequency. The topological nature of this dynamical phase, as well as its instability below a critical frequency, is connected to specific features of the Floquet pseudo-energy spectrum. We also show that the DCSL can be represented faithfully by a two-dimensional time-periodic tensor network and, as in the static case, topological order is associated to a tensor gauge symmetry (${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ in that case).

arXiv:2409.04892•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Dec 4, 2024•2 citations

Simulating chiral spin liquids with fermionic projected entangled pair states

Sasank Budaraju, Didier Poilblanc, Sen Niu

Chiral spin liquids (CSL) based on spin-1/2 fermionic projected entangled pair states (fPEPS) are considered on the square lattice. First, fPEPS approximants of Gutzwiller-projected Chern insulators (GPCI) are investigated by variational Monte Carlo (VMC) techniques on finite-size tori. We show that such fPEPS of finite bond dimension can correctly capture the topological properties of the chiral spin liquid, as the exact GPCI, with the correct topological ground-state degeneracy on the torus. Further, more general fPEPS are considered and optimized (on the infinite plane) to describe the CSL phase of a chiral frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet. The chiral modes are computed on the edge of a semi-infinite cylinder (of finite circumference) and shown to follow the predictions from conformal field theory. In contrast to their bosonic analogs the (optimized) fPEPS do not suffer from the replication of the chiral edge mode in the odd topological sector.

arXiv:2403.01243•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Aug 2, 2024•2 citations

Chiral topological spin liquids with projected entangled pair states

Didier Poilblanc, J. I. Cirac, Norbert Schuch

Topological chiral phases are ubiquitous in the physics of the fractional quantum Hall effect. Nonchiral topological spin liquids are also well known. Here, using the framework of projected entangled pair states (PEPS), we construct a family of chiral spin liquids on the square lattice, which are generalized spin-1/2 resonating valence bond (RVB) states obtained from deformed local tensors with $d+i\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}d$ symmetry. On a cylinder, we construct four topological sectors with even or odd number of spinons on the boundary and even or odd number of (${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$) fluxes penetrating the cylinder, which, we argue, remain orthogonal in the limit of infinite perimeter. The analysis of the transfer matrix provides evidence of short-range (long-range) triplet (singlet) correlations as for the critical (nonchiral) RVB state. The entanglement spectrum exhibits chiral edge modes, which we confront to predictions of the conformal field theory, and the corresponding entanglement Hamiltonian is shown to be long-ranged.

arXiv:1504.05236•Physical Review B•Jun 29, 2015•63 citations

Emergent Chiral Spin Liquid: Fractional Quantum Hall Effect in a Kagome Heisenberg Model

Shou-Shu Gong, Wei Zhu, D. N. Sheng

The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) realized in two-dimensional electron systems under a magnetic field is one of the most remarkable discoveries in condensed matter physics. Interestingly, it has been proposed that FQHE can also emerge in time-reversal invariant spin systems, known as the chiral spin liquid (CSL) characterized by the topological order and the emerging of the fractionalized quasiparticles. A CSL can naturally lead to the exotic superconductivity originating from the condense of anyonic quasiparticles. Although CSL was highly sought after for more than twenty years, it had never been found in a spin isotropic Heisenberg model or related materials. By developing a density-matrix renormalization group based method for adiabatically inserting flux, we discover a FQHE in a spin-½ isotropic kagome Heisenberg model. We identify this FQHE state as the long-sought CSL with a uniform chiral order spontaneously breaking time reversal symmetry, which is uniquely characterized by the half-integer quantized topological Chern number protected by a robust excitation gap. The CSL is found to be at the neighbor of the previously identified Z2 spin liquid, which may lead to an exotic quantum phase transition between two gapped topological spin liquids.

arXiv:1312.4519•Scientific Reports•Sep 10, 2014•246 citations

Engineering and Probing Non-Abelian Chiral Spin Liquids Using Periodically Driven Ultracold Atoms

Bo Sun, Nathan Goldman, Monika Aidelsburger +1 more

We propose a scheme to implement Kitaev's honeycomb model with cold atoms, based on a periodic (Floquet) drive, in view of realizing and probing non-Abelian chiral spin liquids using quantum simulators.We derive the effective Hamiltonian to leading order in the inverse-frequency expansion, and show that the drive opens up a topological gap in the spectrum without mixing the effective Majorana and vortex degrees of freedom.We address the challenge of probing the physics of Majorana fermions, while having access only to the original composite spin degrees of freedom.Specifically, we propose to detect the properties of the chiral spin liquid phase using gap spectroscopy and edge quenches in the presence of the Floquet drive.The resulting chiral edge signal, which relates to the thermal Hall effect associated with neutral Majorana currents, is found to be robust for realistically prepared states.By combining strong interactions with Floquet engineering, our work paves the way for future studies of non-Abelian excitations and quantized thermal transport using quantum simulators.

arXiv:2211.09777•PRX Quantum•May 19, 2023•56 citations

Dynamical Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking and Photo-Induced Chiral Spin Liquids in Frustrated Mott Insulators

Martin Claassen

The search for quantum spin liquids in frustrated quantum magnets recently has enjoyed a surge of interest, with various candidate materials under intense scrutiny. However, an experimental confirmation of a gapped topological spin liquid remains an open question. Here, we show that circularly-polarized light can provide a novel knob to drive frustrated Mott insulators into a chiral spin liquid (CSL), realizing an elusive quantum spin liquid with topological order. We find that the dynamics of a driven Kagome Mott insulator is well-captured by an effective Floquet spin model, with heating strongly suppressed, inducing a scalar spin chirality $S_i \cdot (S_j \times S_k)$ term which dynamically breaks time-reversal while preserving SU(2) spin symmetry. We fingerprint the transient phase diagram and find a stable photo-induced CSL near the equilibrium state. The results presented suggest employing dynamical symmetry breaking to engineer quantum spin liquids and access elusive phase transitions that are not readily accessible in equilibrium.

•Jul 9, 2019•121 citations
In condensed matter, Chiral Spin Liquids (CSL) are quantum spin analogs of electronic Fractional Quantum Hall states (in the continuum) or Fractional Chern Insulators (on the lattice). As the latter, CSL are remarkable states of matter, exhibiting topological order and chiral edge modes. Preparing CSL on quantum simulators like cold atom platforms is still an open challenge. Here we propose a simple setup on a finite cluster of spin-1/2 located at the sites of a square lattice. Using a Resonating Valence Bond (RVB) non-chiral spin liquid as initial state on which fast time-modulations of strong nearest-neighbor Heisenberg couplings are applied, following different protocols (out-of-equilibrium quench or semi-adiabatic ramping of the drive), we show the slow emergence of such a CSL phase. An effective Floquet dynamics, obtained from a high-frequency Magnus expansion of the drive Hamiltonian, provides a very accurate and simple framework fully capturing the out-of-equilibrium dynamics. An analysis of the resulting prepared states in term of Projected Entangled Pair states gives further insights on the topological nature of the chiral phase. Finally, we discuss possible applications to quantum computing.
Chiral Spin Liquids (CSL) are quantum spin analogs of electronic Fractional Chern Insulators. Their realizations on ultracold-atom or Rydberg-atom platforms remain very challenging. Recently, a setup of time-periodic modulations of nearest-neighbor Heisenberg couplings applied on an initial genuine spin liquid state on the square lattice has been proposed to stabilize a (Abelian) Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ CSL phase. In the high-frequency limit, it was shown that time evolution can be described in terms of a static effective chiral Hamiltonian. Here we revisit this proposal and consider drives at lower frequency in a regime where the high-frequency Magnus expansion fails. We show that a Dynamical CSL (DCSL) is nevertheless stabilized in a finite range of frequency. The topological nature of this dynamical phase, as well as its instability below a critical frequency, is connected to specific features of the Floquet pseudo-energy spectrum. We also show that the DCSL can be represented faithfully by a two-dimensional time-periodic tensor network and, as in the static case, topological order is associated to a tensor gauge symmetry (Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ in that case).
Chiral spin liquids (CSL) based on spin-1/2 fermionic projected entangled pair states (fPEPS) are considered on the square lattice. First, fPEPS approximants of Gutzwiller-projected Chern insulators (GPCI) are investigated by variational Monte Carlo (VMC) techniques on finite-size tori. We show that such fPEPS of finite bond dimension can correctly capture the topological properties of the chiral spin liquid, as the exact GPCI, with the correct topological ground-state degeneracy on the torus. Further, more general fPEPS are considered and optimized (on the infinite plane) to describe the CSL phase of a chiral frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet. The chiral modes are computed on the edge of a semi-infinite cylinder (of finite circumference) and shown to follow the predictions from conformal field theory. In contrast to their bosonic analogs the (optimized) fPEPS do not suffer from the replication of the chiral edge mode in the odd topological sector.
Topological chiral phases are ubiquitous in the physics of the fractional quantum Hall effect. Nonchiral topological spin liquids are also well known. Here, using the framework of projected entangled pair states (PEPS), we construct a family of chiral spin liquids on the square lattice, which are generalized spin-1/2 resonating valence bond (RVB) states obtained from deformed local tensors with d+idd+i\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}dd+id symmetry. On a cylinder, we construct four topological sectors with even or odd number of spinons on the boundary and even or odd number of (Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​) fluxes penetrating the cylinder, which, we argue, remain orthogonal in the limit of infinite perimeter. The analysis of the transfer matrix provides evidence of short-range (long-range) triplet (singlet) correlations as for the critical (nonchiral) RVB state. The entanglement spectrum exhibits chiral edge modes, which we confront to predictions of the conformal field theory, and the corresponding entanglement Hamiltonian is shown to be long-ranged.
The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) realized in two-dimensional electron systems under a magnetic field is one of the most remarkable discoveries in condensed matter physics. Interestingly, it has been proposed that FQHE can also emerge in time-reversal invariant spin systems, known as the chiral spin liquid (CSL) characterized by the topological order and the emerging of the fractionalized quasiparticles. A CSL can naturally lead to the exotic superconductivity originating from the condense of anyonic quasiparticles. Although CSL was highly sought after for more than twenty years, it had never been found in a spin isotropic Heisenberg model or related materials. By developing a density-matrix renormalization group based method for adiabatically inserting flux, we discover a FQHE in a spin-½ isotropic kagome Heisenberg model. We identify this FQHE state as the long-sought CSL with a uniform chiral order spontaneously breaking time reversal symmetry, which is uniquely characterized by the half-integer quantized topological Chern number protected by a robust excitation gap. The CSL is found to be at the neighbor of the previously identified Z2 spin liquid, which may lead to an exotic quantum phase transition between two gapped topological spin liquids.
We propose a scheme to implement Kitaev's honeycomb model with cold atoms, based on a periodic (Floquet) drive, in view of realizing and probing non-Abelian chiral spin liquids using quantum simulators.We derive the effective Hamiltonian to leading order in the inverse-frequency expansion, and show that the drive opens up a topological gap in the spectrum without mixing the effective Majorana and vortex degrees of freedom.We address the challenge of probing the physics of Majorana fermions, while having access only to the original composite spin degrees of freedom.Specifically, we propose to detect the properties of the chiral spin liquid phase using gap spectroscopy and edge quenches in the presence of the Floquet drive.The resulting chiral edge signal, which relates to the thermal Hall effect associated with neutral Majorana currents, is found to be robust for realistically prepared states.By combining strong interactions with Floquet engineering, our work paves the way for future studies of non-Abelian excitations and quantized thermal transport using quantum simulators.
The search for quantum spin liquids in frustrated quantum magnets recently has enjoyed a surge of interest, with various candidate materials under intense scrutiny. However, an experimental confirmation of a gapped topological spin liquid remains an open question. Here, we show that circularly-polarized light can provide a novel knob to drive frustrated Mott insulators into a chiral spin liquid (CSL), realizing an elusive quantum spin liquid with topological order. We find that the dynamics of a driven Kagome Mott insulator is well-captured by an effective Floquet spin model, with heating strongly suppressed, inducing a scalar spin chirality Si⋅(Sj×Sk)S_i \cdot (S_j \times S_k)Si​⋅(Sj​×Sk​) term which dynamically breaks time-reversal while preserving SU(2) spin symmetry. We fingerprint the transient phase diagram and find a stable photo-induced CSL near the equilibrium state. The results presented suggest employing dynamical symmetry breaking to engineer quantum spin liquids and access elusive phase transitions that are not readily accessible in equilibrium.