Topological order is now being established as a central criterion for characterizing and classifying ground states of condensed matter systems and complements categorizations based on symmetries. Fractional quantum Hall systems and quantum spin liquids are receiving substantial interest because of their intriguing quantum correlations, their exotic excitations and prospects for protecting stored quantum information against errors. Here we show that the Hamiltonian of the central model of this class of systems, the Toric Code, can be directly implemented as an analog quantum simulator in lattices of superconducting circuits. The four-body interactions, which lie at its heart, are in our concept realized via Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) that are driven by a suitably oscillating flux bias. All physical qubits and coupling SQUIDs can be individually controlled with high precision. Topologically ordered states can be prepared via an adiabatic ramp of the stabilizer interactions. Strings of qubit operators, including the stabilizers and correlations along non-contractible loops, can be read out via a capacitive coupling to read-out resonators. Moreover, the available single qubit operations allow to create and propagate elementary excitations of the Toric Code and to verify their fractional statistics. The architecture we propose allows to implement a large variety of many-body interactions and thus provides a versatile analog quantum simulator for topological order and lattice gauge theories.
The Bose Hubbard model (BHM) of interacting bosons in a lattice has been a paradigm in many-body physics, and it exhibits a Mott insulator (MI)-superfluid (SF) transition at integer filling. Here a quantum simulator of the BHM using a superconducting circuit is proposed. Specifically, a superconducting transmission line resonator supporting microwave photons is coupled to a charge qubit to form one site of the BHM, and adjacent sites are connected by a tunable coupler. To obtain a mapping from the superconducting circuit to the BHM, we focus on the dispersive regime where the excitations remai…
Recent advance in quantum simulations of interacting photons using superconducting circuits offers opportunities for investigating the Bose-Hubbard model in various geometries with hopping coefficients and self-interactions tuned to both signs. Here we investigate phenomena related to localized states associated with a flat-band supported by the saw-tooth geometry. A localization-delocalization transition emerges in the non-interacting regime as the sign of hopping coefficient is changed. In the presence of interactions, patterns of localized states approach a uniform density distribution for …
Analog quantum simulators can be used to study quantum correlation in novel many-body systems by emulating the Hamiltonian of these systems. One essential question in quantum simulation is to probe the properties of an emulated many-body system. Here we present a circuit QED scheme for probing such properties by measuring the spectrum of a superconducting resonator coupled to a quantum simulator. We first study a general framework of this approach, and show that the spectrum of the resonator is directly related to the correlation function of the coupling operator between the resonator and the …
We propose the implementation of a digital quantum simulator for prototypical spin models in a circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture. We consider the feasibility of the quantum simulation of Heisenberg and frustrated Ising models in transmon qubits coupled to coplanar waveguide microwave resonators. Furthermore, we analyze the time evolution of these models and compare the ideal spin dynamics with a realistic version of the proposed quantum simulator. Finally, we discuss the key steps for developing the toolbox of digital quantum simulators in superconducting circuits.
We propose an analog quantum simulator for the Holstein molecular-crystal model based on a superconducting circuit QED system in the dispersive regime. By varying the driving field on the superconducting resonators, one can readily access both the adiabatic and anti-adiabatic regimes of this model. Strong e-ph coupling required for small-polaron formation can also be reached. We show that small-polaron state of arbitrary quasimomentum can be generated by applying a microwave pulse to the resonators. We also show that significant squeezing in the resonator modes can be achieved in the polaron-c…
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 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 analy…
Quantum simulation elucidates properties of quantum many-body systems by mapping its Hamiltonian to a better-controlled system. Being less stringent than a universal quantum computer, noisy small- and intermediate-scale quantum simulators have successfully demonstrated qualitative behavior such as phase transition, localization and thermalization which are insensitive to imperfections in the engineered Hamiltonian. For more complicated features like quantum information scrambling, higher controllability will be desired to simulate both the forward and the backward time evolutions and to diagno…
We propose an architecture for an analog quantum simulator of electromagnetism in 2+1 dimensions, based on an array of superconducting fluxonium devices. The encoding is in the integer (spin-1 representation of the quantum link model formulation of compact U(1) lattice gauge theory. We show how to engineer Gauss' law via an ancilla mediated gadget construction, and how to tune between the strongly coupled and intermediately coupled regimes. The witnesses to the existence of the predicted confining phase of the model are provided by nonlocal order parameters from Wilson loops and disorder param…
Non-equilibrium quantum many-body systems, which are difficult to study via classical computation, have attracted wide interest. Quantum simulation can provide insights into these problems. Here, using a programmable quantum simulator with 16 all-to-all connected superconducting qubits, we investigate the dynamical phase transition in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model with a quenched transverse field. Clear signatures of the dynamical phase transition, merging different concepts of dynamical criticality, are observed by measuring the non-equilibrium order parameter, nonlocal correlations, and the…
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 the current work. We describe a lattice gauge theory of the Majorana toric code …
Open quantum system approaches are widely used in the description of physical, chemical and biological systems. A famous example is electronic excitation transfer in the initial stage of photosynthesis, where harvested energy is transferred with remarkably high efficiency to a reaction center. This transport is affected by the motion of a structured vibrational environment, which makes simulations on a classical computer very demanding. Here we propose an analog quantum simulator of complex open system dynamics with a precisely engineered quantum environment. Our setup is based on superconduct…
Quantum systems are notoriously difficult to simulate with classical means. Recently, the idea of using another quantum system - which is experimentally more controllable - as a simulator for the original problem has gained significant momentum. Amongst the experimental platforms studied as quantum simulators, superconducting qubits are one of the most promising, due to relative straightforward scalability, easy design, and integration with standard electronics. Here I review the recent state-of-the art in the field and the prospects for simulating systems ranging from relativistic quantum fie…
We propose a scheme for investigating the nonequilibrium aspects of small-polaron physics using an array of superconducting qubits and microwave resonators. This system, which can be realized with transmon or gatemon qubits, serves as an analog simulator for a lattice model describing a nonlocal coupling of a quantum particle (excitation) to dispersionless phonons. We study its dynamics following an excitation-phonon (qubit-resonator) interaction quench using a numerically exact approach based on a Chebyshev-moment expansion of the time-evolution operator of the system. We thereby glean hereto…
Synthesis of many-body quantum systems in the laboratory can help provide further insight into the emergent behavior of quantum materials, whose properties may provide improved methods for energy conversion, signal transport, or information processing. While the majority of engineerable many-body systems, or quantum simulators, consist of particles on a lattice with local interactions, quantum systems featuring long-range interactions are particularly challenging to model and interesting to study due to the rapid spatio-temporal growth of quantum entanglement and correlations. Here, we present…
Understanding complex quantum matter presents a central challenge in condensed matter physics. The difficulty lies in the exponential scaling of the Hilbert space with the system size, making solutions intractable for both analytical and conventional numerical methods. As originally envisioned by Richard Feynman, this class of problems can be tackled using controllable quantum simulators. Despite many efforts, building an quantum emulator capable of solving generic quantum problems remains an outstanding challenge, as this involves controlling a large number of quantum elements. Here, employin…
We propose the implementation of a switch of particle statistics with an embedding quantum simulator. By encoding both Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics into an enlarged Hilbert space, the statistics of quantum particles may be changed in situ during the time evolution, from bosons to fermions and from fermions to bosons, as many times as desired. We illustrate our proposal with few-qubit examples, although the protocol is straightforwardly extendable to larger numbers of particles. This proposal can be implemented on different quantum platforms such as trapped ions, quantum photonics, …
We present a Superconducting Planar ARchitecture for Quantum Simulations (SPARQS) intended to implement a scalable qubit layout for quantum simulators. To this end, we describe the iFREDKIN gate as a controlled entangler for the simulation of Fermionic systems that is advantageous if it can be directly implemented. Using optimal control, we show that and how this gate can be efficiently implemented in the SPARQS circuit, making it a promising platform and control scheme for quantum simulations. Such a quantum simulator can be built with current quantum technologies to advance the design of mol…
Observing Quantum Correlation Dynamics in Tunable Superconducting Bose-Hubbard Simulators
Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences（北京量子信息科学研究院）；Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）
We present practical methods to measure entanglement for quantum simulators that can be realized with trapped ions, cold atoms, and superconducting qubits. Focussing on long- and short-range Ising-type Hamiltonians, we introduce schemes that are applicable under realistic experimental conditions including mixedness due to, e.g., noise or temperature. In particular, we identify a single observable whose expectation value serves as a lower bound to entanglement and which may be obtained by a simple quantum circuit. As such circuits are not (yet) available for every platform, we investigate the p…
Resolving quantum many-body problems represents one of the greatest challenges in physics and physical chemistry, due to the prohibitively large computational resources that would be required by using classical computers. A solution has been foreseen by directly simulating the time evolution through sequences of quantum gates applied to arrays of qubits, i.e. by implementing a digital quantum simulator. Superconducting circuits and resonators are emerging as an extremely-promising platform for quantum computation architectures, but a digital quantum simulator proposal that is straightforwardly…
Kitaev's toric code is an exactly solvable model with $\mathbb{Z}_2$-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 $\mathbb{Z}_2$ 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 prop…
Following Feynman and as elaborated on by Lloyd, a universal quantum simulator (QS) is a controlled quantum device which reproduces the dynamics of any other many particle quantum system with short range interactions. This dynamics can refer to both coherent Hamiltonian and dissipative open system evolution. We investigate how laser excited Rydberg atoms in large spacing optical or magnetic lattices can provide an efficient implementation of a universal QS for spin models involving (high order) n-body interactions. This includes the simulation of Hamiltonians of exotic spin models involving n-…
Quantum simulators are attractive as a means to study many-body quantum systems that are not amenable to classical numerical treatment. A versatile framework for quantum simulation is offered by superconducting circuits. In this perspective, we discuss how superconducting circuits allow the engineering of a wide variety of interactions, which in turn allows the simulation of a wide variety of model Hamiltonians. In particular we focus on strong photon-photon interactions mediated by nonlinear elements. This includes on-site, nearest-neighbour and four-body interactions in lattice models, allow…
The realization of novel phases of matter on quantum simulators is a topic of intense interest. Digital quantum computers offer a route to prepare topological phases with interactions that do not naturally arise in analog quantum simulators. Here, we report the realization of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases of a spin-{1/2} Hamiltonian with next-nearest-neighbor hopping on up to 11 qubits on a programmable superconducting quantum processor. We observe clear signatures of the two distinct SPT phases, such as excitations localized to specific edges and finite string order parameters. …
We propose an analog superconducting quantum simulator for a one-dimensional model featuring momentum-dependent (nonlocal) electron-phonon couplings of Su-Schrieffer-Heeger and "breathing-mode" types. Because its corresponding vertex function depends on both the electron- and phonon quasimomenta, this model does not belong to the realm of validity of the Gerlach-Löwen theorem that rules out any nonanalyticities in single-particle properties. The superconducting circuit behind the proposed simulator entails an array of transmon qubits and microwave resonators. By applying microwave driving fiel…
Anyons are exotic quasiparticles obeying fractional statistics,whose behavior can be emulated in artificially designed spin systems.Here we present an experimental emulation of creating anyonic excitations in a superconducting circuit that consists of four qubits, achieved by dynamically generating the ground and excited states of the toric code model, i.e., four-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states. The anyonic braiding is implemented via single-qubit rotations: a phase shift of πrelated to braiding, the hallmark of Abelian 1/2 anyons, has been observed through a Ramsey-type interference …
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 (2+1)D-XY. On the other hand, in the limit of infinitely large Cooper-pair tunneling, the phase transition is in the universality class of (2+1)D-Ising. In this work, we treat the case of finite Cooper-pair tunneling and address the question of how th…
We propose a digital quantum simulator of non-Abelian pure-gauge models with a superconducting circuit setup. Within the framework of quantum link models, we build a minimal instance of a pure $SU(2)$ gauge theory, using triangular plaquettes involving geometric frustration. This realization is the least demanding, in terms of quantum simulation resources, of a non-Abelian gauge dynamics. We present two superconducting architectures that can host the quantum simulation, estimating the requirements needed to run possible experiments. The proposal establishes a path to the experimental simulatio…
Topological orders can be used as media for topological quantum computing --- a promising quantum computation model due to its invulnerability against local errors. Conversely, a quantum simulator, often regarded as a quantum computing device for special purposes, also offers a way of characterizing topological orders. Here, we show how to identify distinct topological orders via measuring their modular $S$ and $T$ matrices. In particular, we employ a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum simulator to study the properties of three topologically ordered matter phases described by the string-net mo…
ParaToric 1.0: Continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo for the toric code in a parallel field
Department of Physics and Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München（慕尼黑大学物理系与阿诺德·索末菲理论物理中心）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与工程中心）
Hybrid quantum circuits combine two or more physical systems, with the goal of harnessing the advantages and strengths of the different systems in order to better explore new phenomena and potentially bring about novel quantum technologies. This article presents a brief overview of the progress achieved so far in the field of hybrid circuits involving atoms, spins and solid-state devices (including superconducting and nanomechanical systems). How these circuits combine elements from atomic physics, quantum optics, condensed matter physics, and nanoscience is discussed, and different possible a…
Quantum spin liquids, exotic phases of matter with topological order, have been a major focus of explorations in physical science for the past several decades. Such phases feature long-range quantum entanglement that can potentially be exploited to realize robust quantum computation. We use a 219-atom programmable quantum simulator to probe quantum spin liquid states. In our approach, arrays of atoms are placed on the links of a kagome lattice and evolution under Rydberg blockade creates frustrated quantum states with no local order. The onset of a quantum spin liquid phase of the paradigmatic…
We propose possible approaches for the quantum simulation of itinerant spin-carrying particles in a superconducting qubit-resonator array. The standard Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard setup considered in several recent studies can readily be used as a quantum simulator for a number of relevant phenomena, including the interaction with external magnetic fields and spin-orbit coupling. A more complex setup where multiple qubits and multiple resonator modes are utilized in the simulation gives a higher level of complexity, including the simulation of particles with high spin values and allowing more dire…
Bunny Codes: Broadening Superconducting Quantum Error Correction Capability through Advanced Control Engineering
Tsinghua University（清华大学）；TraverseQuantum Co., Ltd.（纵横量子有限公司）；Zhongguancun Laboratory（中关村实验室）；Pengcheng Laboratory（鹏城实验室）；The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology（香港科技大学）
With quantum computers being out of reach for now, quantum simulators are the alternative devices for efficient and more exact simulation of problems that are challenging on conventional computers. Quantum simulators are classified into analog and digital, with the possibility of constructing "hybrid" simulators by combining both techniques. In this paper, we focus on analog quantum simulators of open quantum systems and address the limit that they can beat classical computers. In particular, as an example, we discuss simulation of the chlorosome light-harvesting antenna from green sulfur bact…
In this short review, I draw attention to new developments in the theory of fault tolerance in quantum computation that may give concrete direction to future work in the development of superconducting qubit systems. The basics of quantum error correction codes, which I will briefly review, have not significantly changed since their introduction fifteen years ago. But an interesting picture has emerged of an efficient use of these codes that may put fault tolerant operation within reach. It is now understood that two dimensional surface codes, close relatives of the original toric code of Kitae…
We propose a quantum algorithm for simulating spin models based on periodic modulation of transmon qubits. Using Floquet theory we derive an effective time-averaged Hamiltonian, which is of the general XYZ class, different from the isotropic XY Hamiltonian typically realised by the physical setup. As an example, we provide a simple recipe to construct a transverse Ising Hamiltonian in the Floquet basis. For a 1D system we demonstrate numerically the dynamical simulation of the transverse Ising Hamiltonian and quantum annealing to its ground state. We benchmark the Floquet approach with a digit…
A quantum simulator of U(1) lattice gauge theories can be implemented with superconducting circuits. This allows the investigation of confined and deconfined phases in quantum link models, and of valence bond solid and spin liquid phases in quantum dimer models. Fractionalized confining strings and the real-time dynamics of quantum phase transitions are accessible as well. Here we show how state-of-the-art superconducting technology allows us to simulate these phenomena in relatively small circuit lattices. By exploiting the strong non-linear couplings between quantized excitations emerging wh…
Cold atoms in optical lattices is the application of two formerly distinct aspects of physics: quantum gases from atomic physics and laser theory from quantum optics. Its use to simulate quantum phenomena and models in condensed matter physics is a growing field. The major goal is to use cold fermonic atoms in these superlattices for the simulations. We present here a theoretical proposal for simulating a spin ordering model using fermions. We demonstrate superexchange interaction in the double well and resonating valence bond (RVB) states in kagome lattice which is important for understanding…
The implementation of many-body interactions is relevant in various areas of quantum information. We present a superconducting device that implements a strong and tunable three-body interaction between superconducting quantum bits, with vanishing two-body interactions and robustness against noise and circuit parameter variations. These properties are confirmed by calculations based on the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, a two-level model for the coupling circuit, and numerical diagonalization. This circuit behaves as an ideal computational basis ZZZ coupler in a simulated three-qubit quantum a…
One-dimensional time-reversal invariant topological superconducting wires of the symmetry class DIII exhibit exotic physics which can be exploited to realize the set of universal operations in topological quantum computing. However, the verification of DIII-class physics in conventional condensed matter materials is highly nontrivial due to realistic constraints. Here we propose a symmetry-protected hard-core boson simulator of the one-dimensional DIII topological superconductor. By using the developed dispersive dynamic modulation approach, not only the faithful simulation of this new type of…
