Search

Non-Hermiticity and synthetic gauge fields play two fundamental roles in engineering exotic phases and dynamics in artificial quantum systems. Here we explore the mean-field dynamics of interacting bosons in a two-leg ladder with synthetic magnetic flux and nonreciprocal hopping under the open boundary condition. In the Hermitian limit, we showcase the breakdown of the flux-driven chiral dynamics due to the nonlinear self-trapping effect. We further find that the nonreciprocity can drive the transition between chiral dynamics and antichiral dynamics. The antichiral motion is manifested as the non-Hermitian skin dynamics along the same direction on two legs that are not suppressed by the magnetic flux, while the chiral-antichiral transition is flux-tunable. We also reveal the trap-skin dynamics with the coexistence of the self-tapping and skin dynamics in the ladder. Dynamical phase diagrams with respect to the chiral-antichiral dynamics, skin dynamics, self-trapping dynamics, and trap-skin dynamics are presented. Our results shed light on intriguing dynamical phenomena under the interplay among non-Hermiticity, nonlinearity, and artificial gauge fields., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

Dynamically localized states in quantum many-body systems are fundamentally important in understanding quantum thermalization and have applications in quantum information processing. Here we explore many-body dynamical localization (MBDL) without disorders in a non-integrable quantum XY spin chain under periodical and quadratic kicks. We obtain the localization phase diagram with the MBDL and delocalization states and show dynamical observables to extract the phase diagram. For proper kick strengths in the MBDL regime, we reveal a local dynamical decoupling effect for persistent Rabi oscillation of certain spins. Furthermore, we propose the MBDL-protected quantum information at high temperatures, and present an analysis of the dynamical decoupling to obtain the required system parameters for quantum storage. Compared to other non-thermalized states, the disorder-free MBDL states require much fewer repetitions and resources, providing a promising way to protect and store quantum information robust against thermal noises., Comment: 6+4 pages, 4+6 figures; some references are added

We explore quantum criticality and Kibble-Zurek scaling (KZS) in the Aubry-Andre-Stark (AAS) model, where the Stark field of strength $\varepsilon$ is added onto the one-dimensional quasiperiodic lattice. We perform scaling analysis and numerical calculations of the localization length, inverse participation ratio (IPR), and energy gap between the ground and first excited states to characterize critical properties of the delocalization-localization transition. Remarkably, our scaling analysis shows that, near the critical point, the localization length $\xi$ scales with $\varepsilon$ as $\xi\propto\varepsilon^{-\nu}$ with $\nu\approx0.3$ a new critical exponent for the AAS model, which is different from the counterparts for both the pure Aubry-Andre (AA) model and Stark model. The IPR $\mathcal{I}$ scales as $\mathcal{I}\propto\varepsilon^{s}$ with the critical exponent $s\approx0.098$, which is also different from both two pure models. The energy gap $\Delta E$ scales as $\Delta E\propto \varepsilon^{\nu z}$ with the same critical exponent $z\approx2.374$ as that for the pure AA model. We further reveal hybrid scaling functions in the overlap between the critical regions of the Anderson and Stark localizations. Moreover, we investigate the driven dynamics of the localization transitions in the AAS model. By linearly changing the Stark (quasiperiodic) potential, we calculate the evolution of the localization length and the IPR, and study their dependence on the driving rate. We find that the driven dynamics from the ground state is well described by the KZS with the critical exponents obtained from the static scaling analysis. When both the Stark and quasiperiodic potentials are relevant, the KZS form includes the two scaling variables. This work extends our understanding of critical phenomena on localization transitions and generalizes the application of the KZS to hybrid models., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures; accepted by PRB

The geometric properties of quantum states is fully encoded by the quantum geometric tensor. The real and imaginary parts of the quantum geometric tensor are the quantum metric and Berry curvature, which characterize the distance and phase difference between two nearby quantum states in Hilbert space, respectively. For conventional Hermitian quantum systems, the quantum metric corresponds to the fidelity susceptibility and has already been used to specify quantum phase transitions from the geometric perspective. In this work, we extend this wisdom to the non-Hermitian systems for revealing non-Hermitian critical points. To be concrete, by employing numerical exact diagonalization and analytical methods, we calculate the quantum metric and corresponding order parameters in various non-Hermitian models, which include two non-Hermitian generalized Aubry-Andre models and non-Hermitian cluster and mixed-field Ising models. We demonstrate that the quantum metric of eigenstates in these non-Hermitian models exactly identifies the localization transitions, mobility edges, and many-body quantum phase transitions with gap closings, respectively. We further show that this strategy is robust against the finite-size effect and different boundary conditions.

The quantum geometric tensor (QGT) characterizes the complete geometric properties of quantum states, with the symmetric part being the quantum metric, and the antisymmetric part being the Berry curvature. We propose a generic Hamiltonian with global degenerate ground states, and give a general relation between the corresponding non-Abelian quantum metric and unit Bloch vector. This enables us to construct the relation between the non-Abelian quantum metric and Berry or Euler curvature. To be concrete, we present and study two topological semimetal models with global degenerate bands under CP and $C_2T$ symmetries, respectively. The topological invariants of these two degenerate topological semimetals are the Chern number and Euler class, respectively, which are calculated from the non-Abelian quantum metric with our constructed relations. Based on the adiabatic perturbation theory, we further obtain the relation between the non-Abelian quantum metric and the energy fluctuation. Such a non-adiabatic effect can be used to extract the non-Abelian quantum metric, which is numerically demonstrated for the two models of degenerate topological semimetals. Finally, we discuss the quantum simulation of the model Hamiltonians with cold atoms., Comment: 14 pages,5 figures

We explore topology-localization phase diagram by simulating one-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model with quasiperiodic disorder using a programmable superconducting simulator. We experimentally map out and identify various trivial and topological phases with extended, critical, and localized bulk states. We find that with increasing disorder strength, some extended states can be first replaced by localized states and then by critical states before the system finally becomes fully localized. The critical states exhibit typical features such as multifractality and self-similarity, which lead to surprisingly rich phases with different types of mobility edges and scaling behaviors on the phase boundaries. Our results shed new light on the investigation of the topological and localization phenomena in condensed-matter physics., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Topological vacua are a family of degenerate ground states of Yang-Mills fields with zero field strength but nontrivial topological structures. They play a fundamental role in particle physics and quantum field theory, but have not yet been experimentally observed. Here we report the first theoretical proposal and experimental realization of synthetic topological vacua with a cloud of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. Our setup provides a promising platform to demonstrate the fundamental concept that a vacuum, rather than being empty, has rich spatial structures. The Hamiltonian for the vacuum of topological number n = 1 is synthesized and the related Hopf index is measured. The vacuum of topological number n = 2 is also realized, and we find that vacua with different topological numbers have distinctive spin textures and Hopf links. Our work opens up opportunities for exploring topological vacua and related long-sought-after instantons in tabletop experiments.

Thouless pump with quantized transports is topologically robust against small perturbations and disorders, while breaks down under sufficiently strong disorders. Here we propose counter-intuitive topological pumps induced by disorders in noninteracting and interacting systems. We first show an extrinsic topological pump driven by the on-site quasiperiodic potential for a two-loop sequence, where the disorder inequivalently suppresses the topology of two pump loops. Moreover, we reveal an intrinsic topological pump induced by the hopping quasiperiodic disorder from a trivial single-loop pump in the clean limit, dubbed the topological Anderson-Thouless pump (TATP) as a dynamical analogue of topological Anderson insulators. We demonstrate that the mechanism of the TATP is the disorder-induced shift of gapless critical points and the TATP can even exhibit in the dynamic disorder and interacting cases. Finally, we extend the TATP to higher-order topological systems with disorder-induced quantized corner transports. Our proposed TATPs present new members of the topological pump family and could be realized with ultracold atoms or photonic waveguides., Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures (including supplemental materials)

Different disorders lead to various localization and topological phenomena in condensed matter and artificial systems. Here we study the topological and localization properties in one-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with spatially correlated random binary disorders. It is found that random binary disorders can induce the topological Anderson insulating phase from the trivial insulator in various parameter regions. The topological Anderson insulators are characterized by the disorder-averaged winding number and localized bulk states revealed by the inverse participation ratio in both real and momentum spaces. We show that the topological phase boundaries are consistent with the analytical results of the self-consistent Born approach and the localization length of zero-energy modes, and discuss how the bimodal probability affects the disorder-induced topological phases. The topological characters can be detected from the mean chiral displacement in atomic or photonic systems. Our work provides an extension of the topological Anderson insulators to the case of correlated disorders., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Fix incorrect Ref. [92]

The complete geometry of quantum states in parameter space is characterized by the quantum geometric tensor, which contains the quantum metric and Berry curvature as the real and imaginary parts, respectively. When the quantum states are degenerate, the quantum metric and Berry curvature take non-Abelian forms. The non-Abelian (Abelian) Berry curvature and Abelian quantum metric have been experimentally measured. However, an experimentally feasible scheme to extract all the components of the non-Abelian quantum metric tensor is still lacking. Here we propose a generic protocol to directly extract the non-Abelian quantum metric tensor in arbitrary degenerate quantum states in any dimensional parameter space, based on measuring the transition probabilities after parameter quenches. Furthermore, we show that the non-Abelian quantum metric can be measured to obtain the real Chern number of a generalized Dirac monopole and the second Chern number of a Yang monopole, which can be simulated in three and five-dimensional parameter space of artificial quantum systems, respectively. We also demonstrate the feasibility of our quench scheme for these two applications with numerical simulations., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

We investigate the topology and localization of one-dimensional Hermitian and non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains with quasiperiodic hopping modulations. In the Hermitian case, phase diagrams are obtained by numerically and analytically calculating various topological and localization characters. We show the presence of topological extended, intermediate, and localized phases due to the coexistence of independent topological and localization phase transitions driven by the quasiperiodic disorder. Unlike the gapless and localized TAI phase in one-dimensional random disordered systems, we uncover three types of quasiperiodic-disorder-induced gapped topological Anderson insulators (TAIs) with extended, intermediate (with mobility edges), and localized bulk states in this chiral chain. Moreover, we study the non-Hermitian effects on the TAIs by considering two kinds of non-Hermiticities from the non-conjugate complex hopping phase and asymmetric hopping strength, respectively. We demonstrate that three types of TAIs preserve under the non-Hermitian perturbations with some unique localization and topological properties, such as the non-Hermitian real-complex and localization transitions and their topological nature. Our work demonstrates that the disorder-induced TAIs in Hermitian and non-Hermitian quasiperiodic systems are not tied to Anderson transitions and have various localization properties., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures

We investigate the mean-field energy spectrum and dynamics in a Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential with non-Hermiticity from the nonreciprocal hopping, and show that the interplay of nonreciprocity and nonlinearity leads to exotic properties. Under the two-mode and mean-field approximations, the nonreciprocal generalization of the nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation and Bloch equations of motion for this system are obtained. We analyze the PT phase diagram and the dynamical stability of fixed points. The reentrance of PT-symmetric phase and the reformation of stable fixed points with increasing the nonreciprocity parameter are found. Besides, we uncover a linear self-trapping effect induced by the nonreciprocity. In the nonlinear case, the self-trapping oscillation is enhanced by the nonreciprocity and then collapses in the PT-broken phase, and can finally be recovered in the reentrant PT-symmetric phase., Comment: accepted by Frontiers of Physics

The topology of quantum systems has become a topic of great interest since the discovery of topological insulators. However, as a hallmark of the topological insulators, the spin Chern number has not yet been experimentally detected. The challenge to directly measure this topological invariant lies in the fact that this spin Chern number is defined based on artificially constructed wavefunctions. Here we experimentally mimic the celebrated Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model with cold atoms, and then measure the spin Chern number with the linear response theory. We observe that, although the Chern number for each spin component is ill defined, the spin Chern number measured by their difference is still well defined when both energy and spin gaps are non-vanished., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures

Light beams carrying orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) play an important role in optical manipulation and communication owing to their unbounded state space. However, it is still challenging to efficiently discriminate OAM modes with large topological charges and thus only a small part of the OAM states have been usually used. Here we demonstrate that neural networks can be trained to sort OAM modes with large topological charges and unknown superpositions. Using intensity images of OAM modes generalized in simulations and experiments as the input data, we illustrate that our neural network has great generalization power to recognize OAM modes of large topological charges beyond training areas with high accuracy. Moreover, the trained neural network can correctly classify and predict arbitrary superpositions of two OAM modes with random topological charges. Our machine learning approach only requires a small portion of experimental samples and significantly reduces the cost in experiments, which paves the way to study the OAM physics and increase the state space of OAM beams in practical applications., Comment: 6+3 pages, 5+3 figures

The topological Anderson and Mott insulators are two phases that have so far been separately and widely explored beyond topological band insulators. Here we combine the two seemingly different topological phases into a system of spin-1/2 interacting fermionic atoms in a disordered optical lattice. We find that the topological Anderson and Mott insulators in the noninteracting and clean limits can be adiabatically connected without gap closing in the phase diagram of our model. Lying between the two phases, we uncover a disordered correlated topological insulator, which is induced from a trivial band insulator by the combination of disorder and interaction, as the generalization of topological Anderson insulators to the many-body interacting regime. The phase diagram is determined by computing various topological properties and confirmed by unsupervised and automated machine learning. We develop an approach to provide a unified and clear description of topological phase transitions driven by interaction and disorder. The topological phases can be detected from disorder/interaction induced edge excitations and charge pumping in optical lattices., Comment: 6+9 pages, 4+9 figures

We investigate the localization and topological transitions in a one-dimensional (interacting) non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattice, which is described by a generalized Aubry-Andr\'{e}-Harper model with irrational modulations in the off-diagonal hopping and on-site potential and with non-Hermiticities from the nonreciprocal hopping and complex potential phase. For noninteracting cases, we reveal that the nonreciprocal hopping (the complex potential phase) can enlarge the delocalization (localization) region in the phase diagrams spanned by two quasiperiodical modulation strengths. We show that the localization transition are always accompanied by a topological phase transition characterized the winding numbers of eigenenergies in three different non-Hermitian cases. Moreover, we find that a real-complex eigenenergy transition in the energy spectrum coincides with (occurs before) these two phase transitions in the nonreciprocal (complex potential) case, while the real-complex transition is absent under the coexistence of the two non-Hermiticities. For interacting spinless fermions, we demonstrate that the extended phase and the many-body localized phase can be identified by the entanglement entropy of eigenstates and the level statistics of complex eigenenergies. By making the critical scaling analysis, we further show that the many-body localization transition coincides with the real-complex transition and occurs before the topological transition in the nonreciprocal case, which are absent in the complex phase case., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures; accepted by PRA

The study of topological properties by machine learning approaches has attracted considerable interest recently. Here we propose machine learning the topological invariants that are unique in non-Hermitian systems. Specifically, we train neural networks to predict the winding of eigenvalues of four prototypical non-Hermitian Hamiltonians on the complex energy plane with nearly $100\%$ accuracy. Our demonstrations in the non-Hermitian Hatano-Nelson model, Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and generalized Aubry-Andr\'e-Harper model in one dimension, and two-dimensional Dirac fermion model with non-Hermitian terms show the capability of the neural networks in exploring topological invariants and the associated topological phase transitions and topological phase diagrams in non-Hermitian systems. Moreover, the neural networks trained by a small data set in the phase diagram can successfully predict topological invariants in untouched phase regions. Thus, our work paves the way to revealing non-Hermitian topology with the machine learning toolbox., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures. Close to the published version

Many-body localization (MBL) has been widely investigated for both fermions and bosons, it is, however, much less explored for anyons. Here we numerically calculate several physical characteristics related to MBL of a one-dimensional disordered anyon-Hubbard model in both localized and delocalized regions. We figure out a logarithmically slow growth of the half-chain entanglement entropy and an area-law rather than volume-law obedience for the highly excited eigenstates in the MBL phase. The adjacent energy level gap-ratio parameter is calculated and is found to exhibit a Poisson-like probability distribution in the deep MBL phase. By studying a hybridization parameter, we reveal an intriguing effect that the statistics can induce localization-delocalization transition. Several physical quantities, such as the half-chain entanglement, the adjacent energy level gap-ratio parameter, {\color{black} the long-time limit of the particle imbalance}, and the critical disorder strength, are shown to be non-monotonically dependent on the anyon statistical angle. Furthermore, a feasible scheme based on the spectroscopy of energy levels is proposed for the experimental observation of these statistically related properties., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Close to the published version

Monopoles play a center role in gauge theories and topological matter. There are two fundamental types of monopoles in physics: vector monopoles and tensor monopoles. Examples of vector monopoles include the Dirac monopole in 3D and Yang monopole in 5D, which have been extensively studied and observed in condensed matter or artificial systems. However, tensor monopoles 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., Comment: 6+6 pages, 4+4 figures; version accepted for publication in PRL

The interplay among topology, disorder, and non-Hermiticity can induce some exotic topological and localization phenomena. Here we investigate this interplay in a two-dimensional non-Hermitian disordered Chern-insulator model with two typical kinds of non-Hermiticities, the nonreciprocal hopping and on-site gain-and-loss effects. The topological phase diagrams are obtained by numerically calculating two topological invariants in the real space, which are the disorder-averaged open-bulk Chern number and the generalized Bott index, respectively. We reveal that the nonreciprocal hopping (the gain-and-loss effect) can enlarge (reduce) the topological regions and the topological Anderson insulators induced by disorders can exist under both kinds of non-Hermiticities. Furthermore, we study the localization properties of the system in the topologically nontrivial and trivial regions by using the inverse participation ratio and the expansion of single particle density distribution., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Updated to the published version

We explore the topological properties of non-Hermitian nodal-link semimetals with dissipative cold atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice. We construct a two-band continuum model in three dimensions with a spin-dependent gain and loss, where the exceptional points in the energy spectrum can comprise a double Hopf link. The topology of the bulk band is characterized by a winding number defined for a one-dimensional loop in the momentum space and a topological transition of the nodal structures emerges as the change of the non-Hermiticity strength. A non-Bloch theory is built to describe the corresponding lattice model which has anomalous bulk-boundary correspondence. Furthermore, we propose that the model can be realized using ultracold fermionic atoms in an optical lattice and the exceptional nodal links as well as the topological properties can be detected by measuring the atomic spin textures., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures

Non-Hermitian quantum many-body systems are a fascinating subject to be explored. Using the generalized density matrix renormalisation group method and complementary exact diagonalization, we elucidate the many-body ground states and dynamics of a 1D interacting non-Hermitian Aubry-Andre-Harper model for bosons. We find stable ground states in the superfluid and Mott insulating regimes under wide range of conditions in this model. We reveal a skin superfluid state induced by the non-Hermiticity from the nonreciprocal hopping. We investigate the topology of the Mott insulating phase and find its independence of the non-Hermiticity. The topological Mott insulators in this non-Hermitian system are characterized by four equal Chern numbers and a quantized shift of biorthogonal many-body polarizations. Furthermore, we show generic asymmetric expansion and correlation dynamics in the system., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; close to the published version

Although Weyl semimetals have been extensively studied for exploring rich topological physics, the direct observation of the celebrated chiral magnetic effect (CME) associated with the so-called dipolar chiral anomaly has long intrigued and challenged physicists, still remaining elusive in nature. Here we propose a feasible scheme for experimental implementation of ultracold atoms that may enable us to probe the CME with a pure topological current in an artificial Weyl semimetal. The paired Weyl points with the dipolar chiral anomaly emerge in the presence of the well-designed spin-orbital coupling and laser-assisted tunneling. Both of the two artificial fields are readily realizable and highly tunable via current optical techniques using ultracold atoms trapped in three-dimensional optical lattices, providing a reliable way for manipulating Weyl points in the momentum-energy space. By applying a weak artificial magnetic field, the system processes an auxiliary current originated from the topology of a paired Weyl points, namely, the pure CME current. This topological current can be extracted from measuring the center-of-mass motion of ultracold atoms, which may pave the way to directly and unambiguously observe the CME in experiments., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures

We study the topological properties of an extended Bose-Hubbard model with cyclically modulated hopping and on-site potential parameters, which can be realized with ultracold bosonic atoms in a one-dimensional optical superlattice. We show that the interacting bosonic chain at half filling and in the deep Mott insulating regime can simulate bosonic Chern insulators with a topological phase diagram similar to that of the Haldane model of noninteracting fermions. Furthermore, we explore the topological properties of the ground state by calculating the many-body Chern number, the quasiparticle energy spectrum with gapless edge modes, the topological pumping of the interacting bosons, and the topological phase transition from normal (trivial) to topological Mott insulators. We also present the global phase diagram of the many-body ground state, which contains a superfluid phase and two Mott insulating phases with trivial (a zero Chern number) and nontrivial topologies (a nonzero Chern number), respectively., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

In the paper [X. Tan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 210401 (2019)], we have studied the Euler characteristic number $\chi$ for a two-band model; However, the calculated $\chi$ there is not an integer when the parameter $|h|>1$ and then may not be considered as a suitable topological number for the system. In this note, we find that the Bloch vectors of the ground state for $|h|>1$ do not cover the whole Bloch sphere and thus the Euler characteristic number should be effectively associated with the manifold of a disk, rather than a sphere. After taking into account the boundary contribution, we derive the correct Euler characteristic number. Unfortunately, the Euler characteristic number does not change when crossing the critical points $|h|=1$ and thus can not be used to characterize the topological phase transition of the present model., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

Non-Hermitian systems can exhibit unique topological and localization properties. Here we elucidate the non-Hermitian effects on disordered topological systems by studying a non-Hermitian disordered Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with nonreciprocal hoppings. We show that the non-Hermiticity can enhance the topological phase against disorders by increasing energy gaps. Moreover, we uncover a topological phase which emerges only under both moderate non-Hermiticity and disorders, and is characterized by localized insulating bulk states with a disorder-averaged winding number and zero-energy edge modes. Such topological phases induced by the combination of non-Hermiticity and disorders are dubbed non-Hermitian topological Anderson insulators. We also find that the system has non-monotonous localization behaviour and the topological transition is accompanied by an Anderson transition. These properties are general in other non-Hermitian models., Comment: 6+4 pages, 4+6 figures; close to the published version

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 component of 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., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; newly cited two experimental references

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., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures

We propose an experimental scheme to simulate and observe the Klein tunneling of relativistic Maxwell particles with trapped ions. We explore the scattering dynamics of the pseudospin-one Maxwell particles and demonstrate that the scattered state should be a superposition of a reflection state, a localization state, and a transmission state. The probabilities of these states can be analytically obtained by the approach of Landau-Zener transition. We further show that the Maxwell Hamiltonian and the associated scattering dynamics can be mimicked with two trapped ions. The Maxwell spinors are encoded by three internal states of the first ion, the position and momentum are described by those of the motional modes, and the desired linear potential barrier is built by the second ion., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

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 $C=\pm4,\pm2,0$, respectively. They are dubbed DTPs as spin-1 generalization of double-Weyl points. We then construct two-dimensional and three-dimensional tight-binding lattice models of topological metal bands with exotic DTP fermions near the DTPs. In two dimensions, the band gaps close at a trivial DTP with zero Berry phase, which occurs at the transition between the normal and topological insulator phases. In three dimensions, the topological properties of three different DTP fermions in lattice systems are further investigated, and the effects of breaking $C_4$ symmetry are also studied, which generally leads to splitting each quadratic DTP into two linear triple points and gives topological phase diagrams. Using ultracold fermionic atoms in optical lattices, the proposed models can be realized and the topological properties of the DTP fermions can be detected., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures; accepted in PRA

This is an introductory review of the physics of topological quantum matter with cold atoms. Topological quantum phases, originally discovered and investigated in condensed matter physics, have recently been explored in a range of different systems, which produced both fascinating physics findings and exciting opportunities for applications. Among the physical systems that have been considered to realize and probe these intriguing phases, ultracold atoms become promising platforms due to their high flexibility and controllability. Quantum simulation of topological phases with cold atomic gases is a rapidly evolving field, and recent theoretical and experimental developments reveal that some toy models originally proposed in condensed matter physics have been realized with this artificial quantum system. The purpose of this article is to introduce these developments. The article begins with a tutorial review of topological invariants and the methods to control parameters in the Hamiltonians of neutral atoms. Next, topological quantum phases in optical lattices are introduced in some detail, especially several celebrated models, such as the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, the Hofstadter-Harper model, the Haldane model and the Kane-Mele model. The theoretical proposals and experimental implementations of these models are discussed. Notably, many of these models cannot be directly realized in conventional solid-state experiments. The newly developed methods for probing the intrinsic properties of the topological phases in cold atom systems are also reviewed. Finally, some topological phases with cold atoms in the continuum and in the presence of interactions are discussed, and an outlook on future work is given., Comment: Close to the published version. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:cond-mat/0210564, arXiv:1308.6533, arXiv:1703.07222 by other authors

Dipolar parity anomaly can be induced by spatiotemporally weak-dependent energy-momentum separation of paired Dirac points in two-dimensional Dirac semimetals. Here we reveal topological currents arising from this kind of anomaly. A corresponding lattice model is proposed to emulate the topological currents by using two-component ultracold atoms in a two-dimensional optical Raman lattice. In our scheme, the topological currents can be generated by varying on-site coupling between the two atomic components in time and tuned via the laser fields. Moreover, we show that the topological particle currents can directly be detected from measuring the drift of the center of mass of the atomic gases., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures; published version

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., Comment: V2: Extended rewritten version; V3: Accepted version; V4 published version with corrections

The discovery of relativistic spin-1/2 fermions such as Dirac and Weyl fermions in condensed-matter or artificial systems opens a new era in modern physics. An interesting but rarely explored question is whether other relativistic spinal excitations could be realized with artificial systems. Here, we construct twoand three-dimensional tight-binding models realizable with cold fermionic atoms in optical lattices, where the low energy excitations are effectively described by the spin-1 Maxwell equations in the Hamiltonian form. These relativistic (linear dispersion) excitations with unconventional integer pseudospin, beyond the Dirac-Weyl-Majorana fermions, are an exotic kind of fermions named asMaxwell fermions.We demonstrate that the systems have rich topological features. For instance, the threefold degenerate points called Maxwell points may have quantized Berry phases and anomalous quantum Hall effects with spin-momentum locking may appear in topological Maxwell insulators in the two-dimensional lattices. In three dimensions,Maxwell points may have nontrivial monopole charges of \pm2 with two Fermi arcs connecting them, and the merging of the Maxwell points leads to topological phase transitions. Finally, we propose realistic schemes for realizing the model Hamiltonians and detecting the topological properties of the emergent Maxwell quasiparticles in optical lattices., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures; arXiv admin note: substantial text of the 2D results overlap with arXiv:1610.05993

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., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; accepted version

We explore the topological properties of double-Weyl semimetals with cold atoms in optical lattices. We first propose to realize a tight-binding model of simulating the double-Weyl semimetal with a pair of double-Weyl points by engineering the atomic hopping in a three-dimensional optical lattice. We show that the double-Weyl points with topological charges of \$pm2$ behave as sink and source of Berry flux in momentum space connecting by two Fermi arcs and they are stabilized by the \$C_{4h}$ point-group symmetry. By applying a realizable \$C_4$ breaking term, we find that each double-Weyl point splits into two single-Weyl points and obtain rich phase diagrams in the parameter space spanned by the strengths of an effective Zeeman term and the \$C_4$ breaking term, which contains a topological and a normal insulating phases and two topological Weyl semimetal phases with eight and four single-Weyl points, apart from the double-Weyl semimetal phase. Furthermore, we demonstrate with numerical simulations that (i) the mimicked double- and single-Weyl points can be detected by measuring the atomic transfer fractions after a Bloch oscillation; (ii) the Chern number of different quantum phases in the phase diagram can be extracted from the center shift of the hybrid Wannier functions, which can be directly measured with the time-of-flight imaging; (iii) the band topology of the \$C_4$ symmetric Bloch Hamiltonian can be detected simply from measuring the spin polarization at the high symmetry momentum points with a condensate in the optical lattice. The proposed system would provide a promising platform for elaborating the intrinsic exotic physics of double-Weyl semimetals and the related topological phase transitions., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures; accepted by PRA

We propose that a tunable generalized three-dimensional Hofstadter Hamiltonian can be realized by engineering the Raman-assisted hopping of ultracold atoms in a cubic optical lattice. The Hamiltonian describes a periodic lattice system under artificial magnetic fluxes in three dimensions. For certain hopping configurations, the bulk bands can have Weyl points and nodal loops, respectively, allowing the study of both the two nodal semimetal states within this system. Furthermore, we illustrate that with proper rational fluxes and hopping parameters, the system can exhibit the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect when the Fermi level lies in the band gaps, which is topologically characterized by one or two nonzero Chern numbers. Our proposed optical-lattice system provides a promising platform for exploring various exotic topological phases in three dimensions., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

We study the dynamics of a transverse-field XY chain driven across quantum critical points by noisy control fields. We characterize the defect density as a function of the quench time and the noise strength, and demonstrate that the defect productions for three quench protocols with different scaling exponents exhibit the anti-Kibble-Zurek behavior, whereby slower driving results in more defects. The protocols are quenching through the boundary line between paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases, quenching across the isolated multicritical point and along the gapless line, respectively. We also show that the optimal quench time to minimize defects scales as a universal power law of the noise strength in all the three cases. Furthermore, by using quantum simulation of the quench dynamics in the spin system with well-designed Landau-Zener crossings in pseudo-momentum space, we propose an experimentally feasible scheme to test the predicted anti-Kibble-Zurek behavior of this noisy transverse-field XY chain with two-level systems under controllable fluctuations., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; Revised version, accepted by PRB