Detecting non-Abelian statistics of topological states on a chain of superconducting circuits

In view of the fundamental importance and many promising potential applications, non-Abelian statistics of topologically protected states has attracted much attention recently. However, due to the operational difficulties in solid state materials, non-Abelian statistics has not been experimentally realized yet. The superconducting quantum circuits system is scalable and controllable, thus is a promising platform for quantum simulation. Here, we propose a scheme to demonstrate non-Abelian statistics of topologically protected zero energy edge modes on a chain of the superconducting circuits. Specifically, we can realize topological phase transition by varying the hopping strength and magnetic filed in the chain, and the realized non-Abelian operation can be used in topological quantum computation. Considering the advantages of the superconducting quantum circuits, our protocol may shed light on quantum computation via topologically-protected states.