Observation of interaction-induced fast Thouless pumping of solitons
Thouless pumping provides a paradigmatic platform for studying the effects of interactions on topological transport in periodically driven systems. However, most studies have been constrained by adiabatic conditions, which preclude exploration of interaction-driven novel topological states at high driving frequencies. Here, we experimentally investigate the interplay between interaction and modulation frequency in Thouless pumping realized in a periodically modulated lattice in momentum space of atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. We observe fast Thouless pumping of matterwave solitons at intermediate interactions, with no counterpart in the non- or weakly interacting regimes. Beyond the boundary of topological phase transition induced by interaction, nonadiabatic quantized pumping of solitons emerges at high modulation frequencies over a broad interaction range, in good agreement with theoretical calculations, while the solitons remain trapped in the low-frequency adiabatic pumping regime. Our work opens new avenues for accelerating topological transport in driven quantum systems and engineering fast topological devices.