We present a scheme for universal topological quantum computation based on Clifford complete braiding and fusion of symmetry defects in the 3-Fermion anyon theory, supplemented with magic state injection. We formulate a fault-tolerant measurement-based realisation of this computational scheme on the lattice using ground states of the Walker--Wang model for the 3-Fermion anyon theory with symmetry defects. The Walker--Wang measurement-based topological quantum computation paradigm that we introduce provides a general construction of computational resource states with thermally stable symmetry-protected topological order. We also demonstrate how symmetry defects of the 3-Fermion anyon theory can be realized in a 2D subsystem code due to Bombín -- making contact with an alternative implementation of the 3-Fermion defect computation scheme via code deformations.
We relax one of the requirements for topological quantum computation with Majorana fermions. Topological quantum computation was discussed so far as manipulation of the wave function within degenerate many body ground state. The simplest particles providing degenerate ground state, Majorana fermions, often coexist with extremely low energy excitations, so keeping the system in the ground state may be hard. We show that the topological protection extends to the excited states, as long as the Majorana fermions do not interact neither directly, nor via the excited states. This protection relies o…
We study fermionic matrix product operator algebras and identify the associated algebraic data. Using this algebraic data we construct fermionic tensor network states in two dimensions that have non-trivial symmetry-protected or intrinsic topological order. The tensor network states allow us to relate physical properties of the topological phases to the underlying algebraic data. We illustrate this by calculating defect properties and modular matrices of supercohomology phases. Our formalism also captures Majorana defects as we show explicitly for a class of $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry-protected a…
We introduce the Uhlmann geometric phase as a tool to characterize symmetry-protected topological phases in 1D fermion systems, such as topological insulators and superconductors. Since this phase is formulated for general mixed quantum states, it provides a way to extend topological properties to finite temperature situations. We illustrate these ideas with some paradigmatic models and find that there exists a critical temperature $T_c$ at which the Uhlmann phase goes discontinuously and abruptly to zero. This stands as a borderline between two different topological phases as a function of th…
The toric code is known to be equivalent to free fermions. This paper presents explicit local unitary transformations that map the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ toric and surface code --- the open boundary equivalent of the toric code --- to fermions. Through this construction it is shown that the surface code can be mapped to a set of free fermion modes, while the toric code requires additional fermionic symmetry operators. Finally, it is demonstrated how the anyonic statistics of these codes are encoded in the fermionic representations.
We study a chain of ferromagnetic nano-particles or ferromagnetic molecule/atoms on a substrate of fully gapped superconductors. We find that under quite realistic conditions, the fermion-number-parity symmetry $Z_2^f$ can spontaneously break. In other words, such a chain can realize a 1+1D fermionic topologically ordered state and the corresponding two-fold topological degeneracy on an open chain. Such a topological degeneracy becomes the so called Majorana zero mode in the non-interacting limit. More specifically, we find that $Z_2^f$ symmetry breaking or fermionic 1+1D topological order can…
Magnetic texturing on the surface of a topological insulator allows the design of wave guide networks and beam splitters for domain-wall Dirac fermions. Guided by simple analytic arguments we model a Dirac fermion interferometer consisting of two parallel pathways, whereby a newly developed staggered-grid leap-frog discretization scheme in 2+1 dimensions with absorbing boundary conditions is employed. The net transmission can be tuned between constructive to destructive interference, either by variation of the magnetization (path length) or an applied bias (wave length). Based on this principl…
We show how a chiral Dirac fermion (a massless electron or hole) can be converted into a pair of neutral chiral Majorana fermions (a particle equal to its own antiparticle). These two types of fermions exist on the metallic surface of a topological insulator, respectively, at a magnetic domain wall and at a magnet-superconductor interface. Interferometry of Majorana fermions is a key operation in topological quantum computation, but the detection is problematic since these particles have no charge. The Dirac-Majorana converter enables electrical detection of the interferometric signal.
We present a fully many-body formulation of topological invariants for various topological phases of fermions protected by antiunitary symmetry, which does not refer to single particle wave functions. For example, we construct the many-body $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological invariant for time-reversal symmetric topological insulators in two spatial dimensions, which is a many-body counterpart of the Kane-Mele $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant written in terms of single-particle Bloch wave functions. We show that an important ingredient for the construction of the many-body topological invariants is a fermioni…
We present a microscopic model of interacting fermions where the ground state degeneracy is topologically protected. The model is based on a double-wire setup with local interactions in a particle number conserving setting. A compelling property of this model is the exact solvability for its ground states and low energy excitations. We demonstrate the appearance of topologically protected edge states and derive their braiding properties on a microscopic level. We find the non-abelian statistics of Ising anyons, which can be interpreted as Majorana-like edge states.
In this paper, we study five-dimensional Dirac fermions of which extra-dimension is compactified on quantum graphs. We find that there is a non-trivial correspondence between matrices specifying boundary conditions at the vertex of the quantum graphs and zero-dimensional Hamiltonians in gapped free-fermion systems. Based on the correspondence, we provide a complete topological classification of the boundary conditions in terms of non-interacting fermionic topological phases. The ten symmetry classes of topological phases are fully identified in the language of five-dimensional Dirac fermions, …
Novel fermionic quasiparticles with integer pseudospins in some energy bands, such as pseudospin-1 triple-point fermions, recently attract increasing interest since they are beyond the conventional spin-$1/2$ Dirac and Weyl counterparts. In this paper, we propose a class of pseudospin-1 fermioic excitations emerging in topological metal bands, dubbed double-triple-point (DTP) fermions. We first present a general three-band continuum model with $C_4$ symmetry in three dimensions, which has three types of threefold degenerate points in the bands classified by their topological charges $C=\pm4,\p…
We propose a scheme to implement Controlled Not-gate for topological qubits in a quantum-dot-Majorana-fermion hybrid system. Quantum information is encoded on pairs of Majorana fermions, which live on the the interface between topologically trivial and nontrivial sections of a quantum nanowire deposited on an s-wave superconductor. A measurement-based two-qubit Controlled-Not gate is produced with the help of parity measurements assisted by the quantum-dot and followed by prescribed single-qubit gates. The parity measurement, on the quantum-dot and a topological qubit, is achieved by the Aharo…
In classical and single-particle settings, non-trivial band topology always gives rise to robust boundary modes. For quantum many-body systems, however, multiple topological fermions are not always able to coexist, since Pauli exclusion prevents additional fermions from occupying the limited number of available topological modes. In this work, we show, through IBM quantum computers, how one can robustly stabilize more fermions than the number of topological modes through specially designed 2-fermion interactions. Our demonstration hinges on the realization of BDI- and D-class topological Hamil…
We propose a method of encoding a topologically-protected qubit using Majorana fermions in a trapped-ion chain. This qubit is protected against major sources of decoherence, while local operations and measurements can be realized. Furthermore, we show that an efficient quantum interface and memory for arbitrary multiqubit photonic states can be built, encoding them into a set of entangled Majorana-fermion qubits inside cavities.
The Dirac fermion is an important fundamental particle appearing in high-energy physics and topological insulator physics. In particular, a Dirac fermion in a one-dimensional lattice system exhibits the essential properties of topological physics. However, the system has not been quantum simulated in experiments yet. Herein, we propose a one-dimensional generalized lattice Wilson-Dirac fermion model and study its topological phase structure. We show the experimental setups of an atomic quantum simulator for the model, in which two parallel optical lattices with the same tilt for trapping cold …
In this paper we study Weyl fermions in a family of Gödel-type geometries in Einstein general relativity. We also consider that these solutions are embedded in a topological defect background. We solve the Weyl equation and find the energy eigenvalues and eigenspinors for all three cases of Gödel-type geometries where a topological defect is passing through them. We show that the presence of a topological in these geometries contributes to modification of the spectrum of energy. The energy zero modes for all three cases of the Gödel geometries are discussed.
Tensor network states, and in particular projected entangled pair states, play an important role in the description of strongly correlated quantum lattice systems. They do not only serve as variational states in numerical simulation methods, but also provide a framework for classifying phases of quantum matter and capture notions of topological order in a stringent and rigorous language. The rapid development in this field for spin models and bosonic systems has not yet been mirrored by an analogous development for fermionic models. In this work, we introduce a framework of tensor networks hav…
Symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases are gapped short-range-entangled quantum phases with a symmetry $G$, which can all be smoothly connected to the trivial product states if we break the symmetry. It has been shown that a large class of interacting bosonic SPT phases can be systematically described by group cohomology theory. In this paper, we introduce a (special) group supercohomology theory which is a generalization of the standard group cohomology theory. We show that a large class of short-range interacting fermionic SPT phases can be described by the group supercohomology theory.…
We discuss the quantum simulation of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) states for interacting fermions in quasi-one-dimensional gases of alkaline-earth-like atoms such as $^{173}$Yb. Taking advantage of the separation of orbital and nuclear-spin degrees of freedom in these atoms, we consider Raman-assisted spin-orbit couplings in the clock states, which, together with the spin-exchange interactions in the clock-state manifolds, give rise to SPT states for interacting fermions. We numerically investigate the phase diagram of the system, and study the phase transitions between the SPT phase a…
