arXiv subjects

Feng Mei

Publications and source records attributed to Feng Mei.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Digital Quantum Simulation of Floquet Topological Phases with a Solid-State Quantum Simulator

Quantum simulator with the ability to harness the dynamics of complex quantum systems has emerged as a promising platform for probing exotic topological phases. Since the flexibility offered by various controllable quantum systems has enabled to gain insight into quantum simulation of such complicated problems, analog quantum simulator has recently shown its feasibility to tackle problems of exploring topological phases. However, digital quantum simulation and detection of topological phases still remain elusive. Here, we develop and experimentally realize the digital quantum simulation of topological phase with a solid-state quantum simulator at room temperature. Distinct from previous works dealing with static topological phases, the topological phases emulated here are Floquet topological phases. Furthermore, we also illustrate the procedure of digitally simulating a quantum quench and observing the nonequilibrium dynamics of Floquet topological phases. By means of quantum quench, the 0- and π-energy topological invariants are unambiguously detected through measuring time-averaged spin polarizations. Our experiment opens up a new avenue to digitally simulate and detect Floquet topological phases with fast-developed programmable quantum simulators.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Digital Simulation of Topological Matter on Programmable Quantum Processors

Simulating the topological phases of matter in synthetic quantum simulators is a topic of considerable interest. Given the universality of digital quantum simulators, the prospect of digitally simulating exotic topological phases is greatly enhanced. However, it is still an open question how to realize digital quantum simulation of topological phases of matter. Here, using common single- and two-qubit elementary quantum gates, we propose and demonstrate an approach to design topologically protected quantum circuits on the current generation of noisy quantum processors where spin-orbital coupling and related topological matter can be digitally simulated. In particular, a low-depth topological quantum circuit is performed on both IBM and Rigetti quantum processors. In the experiments, we not only observe but also distinguish the 0 and $π$ energy topological edge states by measuring qubit excitation distribution at the output of the circuits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Protecting Quantum Superposition and Entanglement with Photonic Higher-Order Topological Crystalline Insulator

Higher-order topological insulator, as a newly found non-trivial material and structure, possesses a topological phase beyond the bulk-boundary correspondence. Here, we present an experimental observation of photonic higher-order topological crystalline insulator and its topological protection to quantum superposition and entanglement in a two-dimensional lattice. By freely writing the insulator structure with femtosecond laser and directly measuring evolution dynamics with single-photon imaging techniques, we are able to observe the distinct features of the topological corner states in C_4 and C_2 photonic lattice symmetry. Especially, we propose and experimentally identify the topological corner states by exciting the photonic lattice with single-photon superposition state, and we examine the protection impact of topology on quantum entanglement for entangled photon states. The single-photon dynamics and the protected entanglement reveal an intrinsic topological protection mechanism isolating multi-partite quantum states from diffusion-induced decoherence. The higher-order topological crystalline insulator, built-in superposition state generation, heralded single-photon imaging and quantum entanglement demonstrated here link topology, material, and quantum physics, opening the door to wide investigations of higher-order topology and applications of topological enhancement in genuine quantum regime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Spectrally uncorrelated biphotons generated from `the family of BBO crystal'

Spectrally intrinsically uncorrelated biphoton states generated from nonlinear crystals are very important but rare resources for quantum photonics and quantum information applications. Previously, such biphoton states were generated from several kinds of crystals, however, their wavelength ranges and nonlinear efficiencies were still limited for various applications. In order to explore new crystal for wider wavelength range and higher nonlinear efficiency, here we theoretically study the generation of spectrally uncorrelated biphoton states from 14 crystals in the `BBO family', including BBO, CLBO, KABO, KBBF, RBBF, CBBF, BABF, BiBO, LBO, CBO, LRB4, LCB, YCOB, and GdCOB. They satisfy three kinds of group-velocity matching condition from near-infrared to telecom wavelengths. Furthermore, heralded single photons can be generated with a purity as high as 0.98, which is achieved without any narrow filtering. The indistinguishability of photons from independent sources is examined by the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, which results in a visibility of 98% also without any further filtering, i.e., photons from different heralded single-photon sources are highly indistinguishable. Our study may provide single-photon sources with good performance for quantum information processing at near-infrared and telecom wavelengths.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Observation of topological magnon insulator states in a superconducting circuit

Searching topological states in artificial systems has recently become a rapidly growing field of research. Meanwhile, significant experimental progresses on observing topological phenomena have been made in superconducting circuits. However, topological insulator states have not yet been reported in this system. Here, for the first time, we experimentally realize a tunable dimerized spin chain model and observe the topological magnon insulator states in a superconducting qubit chain. Via parametric modulations of the qubit frequencies, we show that the qubit chain can be flexibly tuned into topologically trivial or nontrivial magnon insulator states. Based on monitoring the quantum dynamics of a single-qubit excitation in the chain, we not only measure the topological winding numbers, but also observe the topological magnon edge and defect states. Our experiment exhibits the great potential of tunable superconducting qubit chain as a versatile platform for exploring non-interacting and interacting symmetry-protected topological states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Topological magnon insulator and quantized pumps from strongly-interacting bosons in optical superlattices

We propose a scheme realizing topological insulators and quantized pumps for magnon excitations, based on strongly-interacting two-component ultracold atoms trapped in optical superlattices. Specifically, we show how to engineer the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model for magnons using state-independent superlattices, and the Rice-Mele model using state-dependent superlattices. We describe realistic experimental protocols to detect the topological signatures of magnon excitations in these two models. In particular, we show that the non-equilibrium dynamics of a single magnon can be exploited to directly detect topological winding numbers and phase transitions. We also describe how topological (quantized) pumps can be realized with magnons, and study how this phenomenon depends on the initial magnon state preparation. Our study opens a new avenue for exploring magnonic topological phases of matter and their potential applications in the context of topological magnon transport.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Synthetic spin-orbit coupling and topological polaritons in Janeys-Cummings lattices

The interaction between a photon and a qubit in the Janeys-Cummings (JC) model generates a kind of quasiparticle called polariton. While they are widely used in quantum optics, difficulties in engineering controllable coupling of them severely limit their applications to simulate spinful quantum systems. Here we show that, in the superconducting quantum circuit context, polariton states in the single-excitation manifold of a JC lattice can be used to simulate a spin-1/2 system, based on which tunable synthetic spin-orbit coupling and novel topological polaritons can be generated and explored. The lattice is formed by a sequence of coupled transmission line resonators, each of which is connected to a transmon qubit. Synthetic spin-orbit coupling and effective Zeeman field of the polariton can both be tuned by modulating the coupling strength between neighbouring resonators, allowing for the realization of a large variety of polaritonic topological semimetal bands. Methods for detecting the polaritonic topological edge states and topological invariants are also proposed. Therefore, our work suggests that the JC lattice is a versatile platform for exploring spinful topological states of matter, which may inspire developments of topologically protected quantum optical and information processing devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Topological quantum walks in cavity-based quantum networks

We present a protocol to implement discrete-time quantum walks and simulate topological insulator phases in cavity-based quantum networks, where the single photon is the quantum walker and the cavity input-output process is employed to realize the state-dependent translation operation. Different topological phases can be simulated through tuning the single-photon polarization rotation angles. We show that both the topological boundary states and topological phase transitions can be directly observed via measuring the final photonic density distribution. Moreover, we also demonstrate that these topological signatures are quite robust to practical imperfections. Our work opens a new prospect using cavity-based quantum networks as quantum simulators to study discrete-time quantum walks and mimic condensed matter physics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Quantum entanglement distribution with hybrid parity gate

We propose a scheme for entanglement distribution among different single atoms trapped in separated cavities. In our scheme, by reflecting an input coherent optical pulse from a cavity with a single trapped atom, a controlled phase-shift gate between the atom and the coherent optical pulse is achieved. Based on this gate and homodyne detection, we construct an $n$-qubit parity gate and show its use for distribution of a large class of entangled states in one shot, including the GHZ state $\left\vert GHZ_{n}\right\rangle $, W state $\left\vert W_{n}\right\rangle $, Dicke state $\left\vert D_{n,k}\right\rangle $ and certain sums of Dicke states $% \left\vert G_{n,k}\right\rangle $. We also show such distribution could be performed with high success probability and high fidelity even in the presence of channel loss.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Topological insulator and particle pumping in a one-dimensional shaken optical lattice

We propose a simple method to simulate and detect topological insulators with cold atoms trapped in a one-dimensional bichromatic optical lattice subjected to a time-periodic modulation. The tight-binding form of this shaken system is equivalent to the periodically driven Aubry-Andre model. We demonstrate that this model can be mapped into a two-dimensional Chern insulator model, whose energy spectrum hosts a topological phase within an experimentally accessible parameter regime. By tuning the laser phase adiabatically, such one-dimensional system constitutes a natural platform to realize topological particle pumping. We show that the Chern number characterizing the topological features of this system can be measured by detecting the density shift after one cycle of pumping.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Effects of decoherence on diabatic errors in Majorana braiding

The braiding of two non-Abelian Majorana modes is important for realizing topological quantum computation. It can be achieved through tuning the coupling between the two Majorana modes to be exchanged and two ancillary Majorana modes. However, this coupling also makes the braiding subject to environment-induced decoherence. Here, we study the effects of decoherence on the diabatic errors in the braiding process for a set of time-dependent Hamiltonians with finite smoothness. To this end, we employ the master equation to calculate the diabatic excitation population for three kinds of decoherence processes. (1) Only pure dehasing: the scaling of the excitation population changed from $T^{-2k-2}$ to $T^{-1}$ ($k$ is the number of the Hamiltonian's time derivatives vanishing at the initial and final times) as the braiding duration $T$ exceeds a certain value. (2) Only relaxation: the scaling transforms from $T^{-2k-2}$ to $T^{-2}$ for $k=0$ and to $T^{-a}$ ($a>3$) for $k>0$. (3) Pure dephasing and relaxation: the original scaling switches to $T^{-1}$ firstly and then evolves to $T^{-2}$ in the adiabatic limit. Interestingly, the third scaling-varying style holds even when the expectation of pure dephasing rate is much smaller than that of the relaxation rate, which is attributed to the vanishing relaxation at the turning points of the braiding.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Topological pumping of a single magnon in a one-dimensional spin-dependent optical superlattice

Topological pumping of ultracold atomic gases has recently been demonstrated in two experiments (Nat. Phys. 12, 296; 12, 350 (2016)). Here we study the topological pumping of a single magnon in a dynamically controlled spin-dependent optical superlattice. When the interaction between atoms is strong, this system supports a dynamical version of topological magnon insulator phase. By initially putting a single magnon in the superlattice and slowly varying the dynamical controlled parameter over one period, the shift of the magnon density center is quantized and equal to the topological Chern number. Moreover, we also find that the direction of this quantized shift is entanglement-dependent. Our result provides a route for realizing topological pumping of quasiparticles in strongly correlated ultracold atomic system and for studying the interplay between topological pumping and quantum entanglement.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Robust quantum state transfer via topological edge states in superconducting qubit chains

Robust quantum state transfer (QST) is an indispensable ingredient in scalable quantum information processing. Here we present an experimentally feasible mechanism for realizing robust QST via topologically protected edge states in superconducting qubit chains. Using superconducting Xmon qubits with tunable couplings, we construct generalized Su-Schrieffer-Heeger models and analytically derive the wave functions of topological edge states. We find that such edge states can be employed as a quantum channel to realize robust QST between remote qubits. With a numerical simulation, we show that both single-qubit states and two-qubit entangled states can be robustly transferred in the presence of sizable imperfections in the qubit couplings. The transfer fidelity demonstrates a wide plateau at the value of unity in the imperfection magnitude. This approach is general and can be implemented in a variety of quantum computing platforms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Topology-dependent quantum dynamics and entanglement-dependent topological pumping in superconducting qubit chains

We propose a protocol using a tunable Xmon qubit chain to construct generalized Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) models that support various topological phases. We study the time evolution of a single-excitation quantum state in a SSH-type qubit chain and find that such dynamics is linked to topological winding number. We also investigate the adiabatic transfer of a single-excitation quantum state in a generalized SSH-type qubit chain and show that this process can be connected with topological Chern number and be used to generate a novel entanglement-dependent topological pumping. All results have been demonstrated to be robust against qubit coupling imperfections and can be observed in a short Xmon qubit chain. Our study provides a simple method to directly measure topological invariants rooted in momentum space using quantum dynamics in real space.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Direct Observation of Topology from Single-photon Dynamics on a Photonic Chip

Topology manifesting in many branches of physics deepens our understanding on state of matters. Topological photonics has recently become a rapidly growing field since artificial photonic structures can be well designed and constructed to support topological states, especially a promising large-scale implementation of these states using photonic chips. Meanwhile, due to the inapplicability of Hall conductance to photons, it is still an elusive problem to directly measure the integer topological invariants and topological phase transitions for photons. Here, we present a direct observation of topological winding numbers by using bulk-state photon dynamics on a chip. Furthermore, we for the first time experimentally observe the topological phase transition points via single-photon dynamics. The integrated topological structures, direct measurement in the single-photon regime and strong robustness against disorder add the key elements into the toolbox of `quantum topological photonics' and may enable topologically protected quantum information processing in large scale.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Topological magnon bound-states in periodically modulated Heisenberg XXZ chains

Strongly interacting topological states in multi-particle quantum systems pose great challenges to both theory and experiment. Recently, bound states of elementary spin waves (magnons) in quantum magnets have been experimentally observed in quantum Heisenberg chains comprising ultracold Bose atoms in optical lattices. Here, we explore a strongly interacting topological state called topological magnon bound-state in the quantum Heisenberg chain under cotranslational symmetry. We find that the cotranslational symmetry is the key to the definition of a topological invariant for multi-particle quantum states, which enables us to characterize the topological features of multi-magnon excitations. We calculate energy spectra, density distributions, correlations and Chern numbers of the two-magnon bound-states and show the existence of topological protected edge bound-states. Our study not only opens a new prospect to pursue topological magnon bound-states, but also gives insights into the characterization and understanding of strongly interacting topological states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Topological invariant and cotranslational symmetry in strongly interacting multi-magnon systems

It is still an outstanding challenge to characterize and understand the topological features of strongly interacting states such as bound-states in interacting quantum systems. Here, by introducing a cotranslational symmetry in an interacting multi-particle quantum system, we systematically develop a method to define a Chern invariant, which is a generalization of the well-known Thouless-Kohmoto-Nightingale-den Nijs invariant, for identifying strongly interacting topological states. As an example, we study the topological multi-magnon states in a generalized Heisenberg XXZ model, which can be realized by the currently available experiment techniques of cold atoms [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{111}, 185301 (2013); Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{111}, 185302 (2013)]. Through calculating the two-magnon excitation spectrum and the defined Chern number, we explore the emergence of topological edge bound-states and give their topological phase diagram. We also analytically derive an effective single-particle Hofstadter superlattice model for a better understanding of the topological bound-states. Our results not only provide a new approach to defining a topological invariant for interacting multi-particle systems, but also give insights into the characterization and understanding of strongly interacting topological states.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Scaling of geometric phase versus band structure in cluster-Ising models

We study the phase diagram of a class of models in which a generalized cluster interaction can be quenched by Ising exchange interaction and external magnetic field. We characterize the various phases through winding numbers. They may be ordinary phases with local order parameter or exotic ones, known as symmetry protected topologically ordered phases. Quantum phase transitions with dynamical critical exponents z = 1 or z = 2 are found. Quantum phase transitions are analyzed through finite-size scaling of the geometric phase accumulated when the spins of the lattice perform an adiabatic precession. In particular, we quantify the scaling behavior of the geometric phase in relation with the topology and low energy properties of the band structure of the system.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗