This dissertation focuses on one question: how should one drive an experimentally prepared state of a generic quantum system into a different target-state, simultaneously minimizing energy dissipation and maximizing the fidelity between the target and evolved-states? We develop optimal adiabatic driving protocols for general quantum systems, and show that these are geodesic paths. \n \nGeometric ideas have always played a fundamental role in the understanding and unification of physical phenomena, and the recent discovery of topological insulators has drawn great interest to topology from the field of condensed matter physics. Here, we discuss the quantum geometric tensor, a mathematical object that encodes geometrical and topological properties of a quantum system. It is related to the fidelity susceptibility (an important quantity regarding quantum phase transitions) and to the Berry curvature, which enables topological characterization through Berry phases. \n \nA refined understanding of the interplay between geometry and topology in quantum mechanics is of direct relevance to several emergent technologies, such as quantum computers, quantum cryptography, and quantum sensors. As a demonstration of how powerful geometric and topological ideas can become when combined, we present the results of an experiment that we recently proposed. This experimental work was done at the Google Quantum Lab, where researchers were able to visualize the topological nature of a two-qubit system in sharp detail, a startling contrast with earlier methods. To achieve this feat, the optimal protocols described in this dissertation were used, allowing for a great improvement on the experimental apparatus, without the need for technical engineering advances. \n \nExpanding the existing literature on the quantum geometric tensor using notions from differential geometry and topology, we build on the subject nowadays known as quantum geometry. We discuss how slowly changing a parameter of a quantum system produces a measurable output of its response, merely due to its geometric nature. Next, we topologically characterize different classes of Hamiltonians using the Berry monopole charges, and establish their topological protection. Finally, we explore how such knowledge allows one to access topologically forbidden regions by adiabatically breaking and reestablishing symmetries.
This dissertation focuses on one question: how should one drive an experimentally prepared state of a generic quantum system into a different target-state, simultaneously minimizing energy dissipation and maximizing the fidelity between the target and evolved-states? We develop optimal adiabatic driving protocols for general quantum systems, and show that these are geodesic paths. \n \nGeometric ideas have always played a fundamental role in the understanding and unification of physical phenomena, and the recent discovery of topological insulators has drawn great interest to topology from the field of condensed matter physics. Here, we discuss the quantum geometric tensor, a mathematical object that encodes geometrical and topological properties of a quantum system. It is related to the fidelity susceptibility (an important quantity regarding quantum phase transitions) and to the Berry curvature, which enables topological characterization through Berry phases. \n \nA refined understanding of the interplay between geometry and topology in quantum mechanics is of direct relevance to several emergent technologies, such as quantum computers, quantum cryptography, and quantum sensors. As a demonstration of how powerful geometric and topological ideas can become when combined, we present the results of an experiment that we recently proposed. This experimental work was done at the Google Quantum Lab, where researchers were able to visualize the topological nature of a two-qubit system in sharp detail, a startling contrast with earlier methods. To achieve this feat, the optimal protocols described in this dissertation were used, allowing for a great improvement on the experimental apparatus, without the need for technical engineering advances. \n \nExpanding the existing literature on the quantum geometric tensor using notions from differential geometry and topology, we build on the subject nowadays known as quantum geometry. We discuss how slowly changing a parameter of a quantum system produces a measurable output of its response, merely due to its geometric nature. Next, we topologically characterize different classes of Hamiltonians using the Berry monopole charges, and establish their topological protection. Finally, we explore how such knowledge allows one to access topologically forbidden regions by adiabatically breaking and reestablishing symmetries.
We propose a generalized quantum geometric tenor to understand topological quantum phase transitions, which can be defined on the parameter space with the adiabatic evolution of a quantum many-body system. The generalized quantum geometric tenor contains two different local measurements, the non-Abelian Riemannian metric and the non-Abelian Berry curvature, which are recognized as two natural geometric characterizations for the change in the ground-state properties when the parameter of the Hamiltonian varies. Our results show the symmetry-breaking and topological quantum phase transitions can be understood as the singular behavior of the local and topological properties of the quantum geometric tenor in the thermodynamic limit.
A Berry curvature is an imaginary component of the quantum geometric tensor (QGT) and is well studied in many branches of modern physics; however, the quantum metric as a real component of the QGT is less explored. Here, by using tunable superconducting circuits, we experimentally demonstrate two methods to directly measure the quantum metric tensor for characterizing the geometry and topology of underlying quantum states in parameter space. The first method is to probe the transition probability after a sudden quench, and the second one is to detect the excitation rate under weak periodic driving. Furthermore, based on quantum metric and Berry-curvature measurements, we explore a topological phase transition in a simulated time-reversal-symmetric system. The work opens up a unique approach to explore the topology of quantum states with the QGT.
Abstract Recently, there has been considerable interest in the application of information geometry to quantum many body physics. This interest has been driven by three separate lines of research, which can all be understood as different facets of quantum information geometry. First, the study of topological phases of matter characterized by Chern number is rooted in the symplectic structure of the quantum state space, known in the physics literature as Berry curvature. Second, in the study of quantum phase transitions, the fidelity susceptibility has gained prominence as a universal probe of quantum criticality, even for systems that lack an obviously discernible order parameter. Finally, the study of quantum Fisher information in many body systems has seen a surge of interest due to its role as a witness of genuine multipartite entanglement and owing to its utility as a quantifier of quantum resources, in particular those useful in quantum sensing. Rather than a thorough review, our aim is to connect key results within a common conceptual framework that may serve as an introductory guide to the extensive breadth of applications, and deep mathematical roots, of quantum information geometry, with an intended audience of researchers in quantum many body and condensed matter physics.
Quantum geometry - including both the quantum metric and Berry curvature - arises from the non-zero overlap of well-defined eigenstates and their adiabatic evolution across the Brillouin zone. It has revolutionized condensed matter physics and material science by explaining quantum Hall effects, establishing the modern theory of polarization, and enabling a systematic search for topological materials on a large scale. Yet, despite these advances, we lack a framework for leveraging quantum geometry in the strongly interacting regime. Bridging this gap is critical: if we can harness geometric responses in correlated metals, we stand to engineer desirable transport and optical properties using existing material platforms, thus bypassing the complex task of designing materials with tailored quantum geometry from scratch. In this thesis, we take steps toward such a framework. First, we analyze the resilience of topological boundary modes in the presence of electronic correlations, identifying when interactions preserve, diminish, or destroy boundary modes. Second, we reveal geometric fingerprints of fluctuations in magnetically ordered systems, tying the electric quantum metric to the formation of instabilities and chiral quasi-particle excitations. Third, we generalize quantum geometry to describe families of many-body wave functions, providing a new algorithm to compute state-manifold curvatures suited to interacting phases. Our approach combines analytical theory with numerical methods, including density functional theory and tensor-network simulations, and is supported by open-source software developed during the PhD. Together, these results advance the topological classification of interacting phases and extend quantum geometry from single-particle bands to correlation functions, providing tools to design materials and devices with targeted geometric responses.
Quantum geometry - including both the quantum metric and Berry curvature - arises from the non-zero overlap of well-defined eigenstates and their adiabatic evolution across the Brillouin zone. It has revolutionized condensed matter physics and material science by explaining quantum Hall effects, establishing the modern theory of polarization, and enabling a systematic search for topological materials on a large scale. Yet, despite these advances, we lack a framework for leveraging quantum geometry in the strongly interacting regime. Bridging this gap is critical: if we can harness geometric responses in correlated metals, we stand to engineer desirable transport and optical properties using existing material platforms, thus bypassing the complex task of designing materials with tailored quantum geometry from scratch. In this thesis, we take steps toward such a framework. First, we analyze the resilience of topological boundary modes in the presence of electronic correlations, identifying when interactions preserve, diminish, or destroy boundary modes. Second, we reveal geometric fingerprints of fluctuations in magnetically ordered systems, tying the electric quantum metric to the formation of instabilities and chiral quasi-particle excitations. Third, we generalize quantum geometry to describe families of many-body wave functions, providing a new algorithm to compute state-manifold curvatures suited to interacting phases. Our approach combines analytical theory with numerical methods, including density functional theory and tensor-network simulations, and is supported by open-source software developed during the PhD. Together, these results advance the topological classification of interacting phases and extend quantum geometry from single-particle bands to correlation functions, providing tools to design materials and devices with targeted geometric responses.
Non-equilibrium phenomena in quantum physics are ubiquitous in current research because of their extremely rich phenomenology. Among them, adiabatic processes are particularly interesting because they connect two of the cornerstone of modern condensed matter theory: topological phases of matter and quantum information. Indeed with adiabatic periodic driving, it is possible to engineer exotic non-equilibrium phases with tunable topological properties, which are of great interest for both fundamental research and future quantum technologies. Adiabatic processes can also be used to implement optimization processes on quantum hardware and lie at the basis of hybrid quantum-classical algorithms that are extremely promising for near-term quantum devices. In this thesis, I focus on these two aspects of adiabatic dynamics in quantum systems. In the first part, I investigate the robustness of topological phases, arising in periodically driven systems, with respect to the driving protocol and disorder. In particular, I show that quantized transport and Anderson localization coexist in one-dimensional systems displaying Thouless pumping, because of a delocalization-localization transition in the Floquet spectrum. This transition is linked to the topological nature of the adiabatic driving and disappears if the phase is trivial in the clean limit. In the second part, I study one of the most popular hybrid optimization method, the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). I show that QAOA can tackle the first-order phase transition arising in the infinite range p-spin model with polynomial resources, in stark contrast with adiabatic quantum computation, which requires exponentially long evolution time to reach similar performances. Finally, I present an approach to QAOA based on reinforcement learning (RL). Interestingly, the RL agent automatically adopts strategies that converge towards optimal adiabatic schedules and that can be easily transferred between systems with different sizes, even in the presence of disorder.