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arXiv:quant-ph/0607145 · Physical Review Letters

Adiabatic Preparation of Topological Order

Alioscia Hamma, Daniel A. Lidar

Published Jan 24, 2008• 111 citations
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Abstract

Topological order characterizes those phases of matter that defy a description in terms of symmetry and cannot be distinguished in terms of local order parameters. Here we show that a system of n spins forming a lattice on a Riemann surface can undergo a second order quantum phase transition between a spin-polarized phase and a string-net condensed phase. This is an example of a quantum phase transition between magnetic and topological order. We furthermore show how to prepare the topologically ordered phase through adiabatic evolution in a time that is upper bounded by O(sqrt[n]). This provides a physically plausible method for constructing and initializing a topological quantum memory.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.100.030502

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Topological order characterizes those phases of matter that defy a description in terms of symmetry and cannot be distinguished in terms of local order parameters. Here we show that a system of n spins forming a lattice on a Riemann surface can undergo a second order quantum phase transition between a spin-polarized phase and a string-net condensed phase. This is an example of a quantum phase transition between magnetic and topological order. We furthermore show how to prepare the topologically ordered phase through adiabatic evolution in a time that is upper bounded by O(sqrt[n]). This provides a physically plausible method for constructing and initializing a topological quantum memory.
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.
In this paper a duality between the d=2 Wen-plaquette model in a transverse field and the d=1 Ising model in a transverse field is used to learn the nature of the quantum phase transition (QPT) between a spin-polarized phase and a topological ordered state with the string-net condensation. The QPT is not induced by spontaneous symmetry breaking and there are no conventional Landau-type local order parameters. Instead the string-like non-local order parameters are introduced to describe the QPT. In particular, the duality character between the open-string and closed string for the QPT are explored.
Motivated by the outstanding challenge of realizing low-temperature states of quantum matter in synthetic materials, we propose and study an experimentally feasible protocol for preparing topological states such as Chern insulators. By definition, such (nonsymmetry protected) topological phases cannot be attained without going through a phase transition in a closed system, largely preventing their preparation in coherent dynamics. To overcome this fundamental caveat, we propose to couple the target system to a conjugate system, so as to prepare a symmetry protected topological phase in an extended system by intermittently breaking the protecting symmetry. Finally, the decoupled conjugate system is discarded, thus projecting onto the desired topological state in the target system. By construction, this protocol may be immediately generalized to the class of invertible topological phases, characterized by the existence of an inverse topological order. We illustrate our findings with microscopic simulations on an experimentally realistic Chern insulator model of ultracold fermionic atoms in a driven spin-dependent hexagonal optical lattice.
We present a numerical study of a quantum phase transition from a spin-polarized to a topologically ordered phase in a system of spin-1∕21∕21∕2 particles on a torus. We demonstrate that this non-symmetry-breaking topological quantum phase transition (TOQPT) is of second order. The transition is analyzed via the ground state energy and fidelity, block entanglement, Wilson loops, and the recently proposed topological entropy. Only the topological entropy distinguishes the TOQPT from a standard QPT, and remarkably, does so already for small system sizes. Thus the topological entropy serves as a proper order parameter. We demonstrate that our conclusions are robust under the addition of random perturbations, not only in the topological phase, but also in the spin-polarized phase and even at the critical point.
A quantum Ising model in a transverse field is of the simplest quantum many-body systems used for studying universal properties of quantum phase transitions. Interestingly, it is well known that such phase transitions can be mapped to topological phase transitions in toric code models. Therefore, one can expect that well-known properties of the transverse Ising model are used for characterizing topological phase transitions in toric code models. In this paper, we consider the magnetization of the Ising model and show, while it is a local order parameter, it is mapped to a nonlocal order parameter on the topological side. Consequently, we introduce a string order parameter for topological phase transitions in toric code models defined on different lattices with different dimensions in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. Since such a string order parameter is dual of the Ising order parameter with well-known properties, it leads to a topological (nonlocal) characterization of phase transition in the toric code model in uniform field. Our results show that although topological phase transitions do not follow a symmetry-breaking mechanism, it might still be possible to use concepts of symmetry-breaking phase transitions for topological ones by finding suitable mappings.