Monopoles play a center role in gauge theories and topological matter. Examples of monopoles include the Dirac monopole in 3D and Yang monopole in 5D, which have been extensively studiedand observed in condensed matter or artificial systems. However, tensor monopoles in 4D are less studied, and their observation has not been reported. Here we experimentally construct a tunable spin-1 Hamiltonian to generate a tensor monopole and then measure its unique features with superconducting quantum circuits. The energy structure of a 4D Weyl-like Hamiltonian with three-fold degenerate points acting as tensor monopoles is imaged. Through quantum-metric measurements, we report the first experiment that measures the Dixmier-Douady invariant, the topological charge of the tensor monopole. Moreover, we observe topological phase transitions characterized by the topological Dixmier-Douady invariant, rather than the Chern numbers as used for conventional monopoles in odd-dimensional spaces.
Berry curvature is an imaginary component of the quantum geometric tensor (QGT) and is well studied in many branches of modern physics; however, the quantum metric as a real componentof the QGT is less explored. Here, by using tunable superconducting circuits, we experimentally demonstrate two methods to directly measure the quantum metric tensor for characterizing the geometry and topology of underlying quantum states in parameter space. The first method is to probe the transition probability after a sudden quench, and the second one is to detect the excitation rate under weak periodic driving. Furthermore, based on quantum-metric and Berry-curvature measurements, we explore a topological phase transition in a simulated time-reversal-symmetric system, which is characterized by the Euler characteristic number instead of the Chern number. The work opens up a unique approach to explore the topology of quantum states with the QGT.
Nodal-loop semimetal is one of the exotic gapless topological states of matter that are discovered recently. Here we propose an experimentally feasible scheme to simulate the three-dimensionaltopological nodal-loop semimetal bands in a one-dimensional circuit quantum electrodynamics lattice, by introducing two additional parameter dimensions. A unit-cell of the lattice consists of a transmissionline resonator coupled by a superconducting transmon qubit, and two of the dressed states in a unit-cell are used to simulate the spin-1/2 states of an electron. The neighboring transmission-line resonators are connected by a superconducting quantum interference device, and the effective hopping among them is induced by parametric coupling. Meanwhile, the two artificial dimensions are simulated by tunable Zeeman terms of the spins. The detection of the mimic nodal-loop bands is also discussed and is shown to be well within current technology. Therefore, our scheme provides a feasible way to explore nodal-loop semimetal bands and other topological bands of different spin-orbit coupling forms in this controllable artificial system.
We experimentally explore the topological Maxwell metal bands by mapping the momentum space of condensed-matter models to the tunable parameter space of superconducting quantum circuits.An exotic band structure that is effectively described by the spin-1 Maxwell equations is imaged. Three-fold degenerate points dubbed Maxwell points are observed in the Maxwell metal bands. Moreover, we engineer and observe the topological phase transition from the topological Maxwell metal to a trivial insulator, and report the first experiment to measure the Chern numbers that are higher than one.
Implementing holonomic quantum computation is a challenging task as it requires complicated interaction among multilevel systems. Here, we propose to implement nonadiabatic holonomicquantum computation based on dressed-state qubits in circuit QED. An arbitrary holonomic single-qubit gate can be conveniently achieved using external microwave fields and tuning their amplitudes and phases. Meanwhile, nontrivial two-qubit gates can be implemented in a coupled cavities scenario assisted by a grounding SQUID with tunable interaction, where the tuning is achieved by modulating the ac flux threaded through the SQUID. In addition, our proposal is directly scalable, up to a two-dimensional lattice configuration. In our scheme, the dressed states only involve the lowest two levels of each transmon qubits and the effective interactions exploited are all of resonant nature. Therefore, we release the main difficulties for physical implementation of holonomic quantum computation on superconducting circuits.
We present a feasible protocol to mimic topological Weyl semimetal phase in a small one-dimensional circuit-QED lattice. By modulating the photon hopping rates and on-site photon frequenciesin parametric spaces, we demonstrate that the momentum space of this one-dimensional lattice model can be artificially mapped to three dimensions accompanied by the emergence of topological Weyl semimetal phase. Furthermore, via a lattice-based cavity input-output process, we show that all the essential topological features of Weyl semimetal phase, including the topological charge associated with each Weyl point and the open Fermi arcs, can be unambiguously detected in a circuit with four dissipative resonators by measuring the reflection spectra. These remarkable features may open a new prospect in using well-controlled small quantum lattices to mimic and study topological phases.
We present a direct experimental observation of the correspondence between Landau-Zener transition and Kibble-Zurek mechanism with a superconducting qubit system. We develop a time-resolvedapproach to study quantum dynamics of the Landau-Zener transition. By using this method, we observe the key features of the correspondence between Landau-Zener transition and Kibble-Zurek mechanism, e.g., the boundary between the adiabatic and impulse regions, the freeze-out phenomenon in the impulse region. Remarkably, the scaling behavior of the population in the excited state, an analogical phenomenon originally predicted in Kibble-Zurek mechanism, is also observed in the Landau-Zener transition.
We propose an experimental scheme to simulate the dynamical quantum Hall effect and the related interaction-induced topological transition with a superconducting-qubit array. We showthat a one-dimensional Heisenberg model with tunable parameters can be realized in an array of superconducting qubits. The quantized plateaus, which is a feature of the dynamical quantum Hall effect, will emerge in the Berry curvature of the superconducting qubits as a function of the coupling strength between nearest neighbor qubits. We numerically calculate the Berry curvatures of two-, four- and six-qubit arrays, and find that the interaction-induced topological transition can be easily observed with the simplest two-qubit array. Furthermore, we analyze some practical conditions in typical experiments for observing such dynamical quantum Hall effect
Geometric quantum manipulation and Landau-Zener interferometry have been separately explored in many quantum systems. In this Letter, we combine these two approaches to study the dynamicsof a superconducting phase qubit. We experimentally demonstrate Landau-Zener interferometry based on the pure geometric phases in this solid-state qubit. We observe the interference caused by a pure geometric phase accumulated in the evolution between two consecutive Landau-Zener transitions, while the dynamical phase is canceled out by a spin-echo pulse. The full controllability of the qubit state as a function of the intrinsically robust geometric phase provides a promising approach for quantum state manipulation.