Many-Body Majorana Braiding without an Exponential Hilbert Space.

Qubits built out of Majorana zero modes constitute the primary path toward topologically protected quantum computing. Simulating the braiding process of multiple Majorana zero modes corresponds to the quantum dynamics of a superconducting many-body system. It is crucial to study the Majorana dynamics both in the presence of all other quasiparticles and for reasonably large system sizes. We present a method to calculate arbitrary many-body wave functions as well as their expectation values, correlators, and overlaps from time evolved single-particle states of a superconductor, allowing for significantly larger system sizes. We calculate the fidelity, transition probabilities, and joint parities of Majorana pairs to track the quality of the braiding process. We show how the braiding success depends on the speed of the braid. Moreover, we demonstrate the topological CNOT two-qubit gate as an example of two-qubit entanglement. Our Letter opens the path to test and analyze the many theoretical implementations of Majorana qubits. Moreover, this method can be used to study the dynamics of any noninteracting superconductor.

Triplet Superconductivity from Nonlocal Coulomb Repulsion in an Atomic Sn Layer Deposited onto a Si(111) Substrate.

Atomic layers deposited on semiconductor substrates introduce a platform for the realization of the extended electronic Hubbard model, where the consideration of electronic repulsion beyond the on-site term is paramount. Recently, the onset of superconductivity at 4.7 K has been reported in the hole-doped triangular lattice of tin atoms on a silicon substrate. Through renormalization group methods designed for weak and intermediate coupling, we investigate the nature of the superconducting instability in hole-doped Sn/Si(111). We find that the extended Hubbard nature of interactions is crucial to yield triplet pairing, which is f-wave (p-wave) for moderate (higher) hole doping. In light of persisting challenges to tailor triplet pairing in an electronic material, our finding promises to pave unprecedented ways for engineering unconventional triplet superconductivity.

Realization of a discrete time crystal on 57 qubits of a quantum computer.

Unconventional dynamical phases that violate ergodicity have been a subject of extensive research in recent years. A periodically driven system is naively expected to lose all memory of its initial state due to thermalization, yet this can be avoided in the presence of many-body localization. A discrete time crystal represents a driven system whose local observables spontaneously break time translation symmetry and retain memory of the initial state indefinitely. Here, we report the observation of a discrete time crystal on a chain consisting of 57 superconducting qubits on a state-of-the-art quantum computer. We probe random initial states and compare the cases of vanishing and finite disorder to distinguish many-body localization from prethermal dynamics. We further report results on the dynamical phase transition between the discrete time crystal and a thermal regime, which is observed via critical fluctuations in the system's subharmonic frequency response and a substantial speedup of spin depolarization.

Laser Modulation of Superconductivity in a Cryogenic Wide-field Nitrogen-Vacancy Microscope.

We realize a cryogenic wide-field nitrogen-vacancy microscope and use it to image Abrikosov vortices and transport currents in a superconducting Nb film. We observe the disappearance of vortices upon increase of laser power and their clustering about hot spots upon decrease, indicating local quenching of superconductivity by the laser. Resistance measurements confirm the presence of large temperature gradients across the film. We then investigate the effect of such gradients on transport currents where the current path is seen to correlate with the temperature profile even in the fully superconducting phase. In addition to highlighting the role of temperature inhomogeneities in superconductivity phenomena, this work establishes that under sufficiently low laser power conditions wide-field nitrogen-vacancy microscopy enables imaging over mesoscopic scales down to 4 K with submicrometer spatial resolution, providing a new platform for spatially resolved investigations of a range of systems from topological insulators to van der Waals ferromagnets.

Magnon Landau Levels and Emergent Supersymmetry in Strained Antiferromagnets.

Inhomogeneous strain applied to lattice systems can induce artificial gauge fields for particles moving on this lattice. Here we demonstrate how to engineer a novel state of matter, namely an antiferromagnet with a Landau-level excitation spectrum of magnons. We consider a honeycomb-lattice Heisenberg model and show that triaxial strain leads to equally spaced pseudo-Landau levels at the upper end of the magnon spectrum, with degeneracies characteristic of emergent supersymmetry. We also present a particular strain protocol which induces perfectly quantized magnon Landau levels over the whole bandwidth. We discuss experimental realizations and generalizations.

Atomic-scale interface engineering of Majorana edge modes in a 2D magnet-superconductor hybrid system.

Topological superconductors are predicted to harbor exotic boundary states-Majorana zero-energy modes-whose non-Abelian braiding statistics present a new paradigm for the realization of topological quantum computing. Using low-temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy, here, we report on the direct real-space visualization of chiral Majorana edge states in a monolayer topological superconductor, a prototypical magnet-superconductor hybrid system composed of nanoscale Fe islands of monoatomic height on a Re(0001)-O(2 × 1) surface. In particular, we demonstrate that interface engineering by an atomically thin oxide layer is crucial for driving the hybrid system into a topologically nontrivial state as confirmed by theoretical calculations of the topological invariant, the Chern number.

Interacting topological insulators: a review.

The discovery of the quantum spin Hall effect and topological insulators more than a decade ago has revolutionized modern condensed matter physics. Today, the field of topological states of matter is one of the most active and fruitful research areas for both experimentalists and theorists. The physics of topological insulators is typically well described by band theory and systems of non-interacting fermions. In contrast, several of the most fascinating effects in condensed matter physics merely exist due to electron-electron interactions, examples include unconventional superconductivity, the Kondo effect, and the Mott-Hubbard transition. The aim of this review article is to give an overview of the manifold directions which emerge when topological bandstructures and correlation physics interfere and compete. These include the study of the stability of topological bandstructures and correlated topological insulators. Interaction-induced topological phases such as the topological Kondo insulator provide another exciting topic. More exotic states of matter such as topological Mott insulator and fractional Chern insulators only exist due to the interplay of topology and strong interactions and do not have any bandstructure analogue. Eventually the relation between topological bandstructures and frustrated quantum magnetism in certain transition metal oxides is emphasized.

Cluster-Glass Phase in Pyrochlore XY Antiferromagnets with Quenched Disorder.

We study the impact of quenched disorder (random exchange couplings or site dilution) on easy-plane pyrochlore antiferromagnets. In the clean system, order by disorder selects a magnetically ordered state from a classically degenerate manifold. In the presence of randomness, however, different orders can be chosen locally depending on details of the disorder configuration. Using a combination of analytical considerations and classical Monte Carlo simulations, we argue that any long-range-ordered magnetic state is destroyed beyond a critical level of randomness where the system breaks into magnetic domains due to random exchange anisotropies, becoming, therefore, a glass of spin clusters, in accordance with the available experimental data. These random anisotropies originate from off-diagonal exchange couplings in the microscopic Hamiltonian, establishing their relevance to other magnets with strong spin-orbit coupling.

Quantum phase transitions of topological insulators without gap closing.

We consider two-dimensional Chern insulators and time-reversal invariant topological insulators and discuss the effect of perturbations breaking either particle-number conservation or time-reversal symmetry. The appearance of trivial mass terms is expected to cause quantum phase transitions into trivial phases when such a perturbation overweighs the topological term. These phase transitions are usually associated with a bulk-gap closing. In contrast, the chiral Chern insulator is unaffected by particle-number breaking perturbations. Moreover, the [Formula: see text] topological insulator undergoes phase transitions into topologically trivial phases without bulk-gap closing in the presence of any of such perturbations. In certain cases, these phase transitions can be circumvented and the protection restored by another U(1) symmetry, e.g. due to spin conservation. These findings are discussed in the context of interacting topological insulators.

Landau Levels of Majorana Fermions in a Spin Liquid.

Majorana fermions, originally proposed as elementary particles acting as their own antiparticles, can be realized in condensed-matter systems as emergent quasiparticles, a situation often accompanied by topological order. Here we propose a physical system which realizes Landau levels-highly degenerate single-particle states usually resulting from an orbital magnetic field acting on charged particles-for Majorana fermions. This is achieved in a variant of a quantum spin system due to Kitaev which is distorted by triaxial strain. This strained Kitaev model displays a spin-liquid phase with charge-neutral Majorana-fermion excitations whose spectrum corresponds to that of Landau levels, here arising from a tailored pseudomagnetic field. We show that measuring the dynamic spin susceptibility reveals the Landau-level structure by a remarkable mechanism of probe-induced bound-state formation.

Strain-Induced Landau Levels in Arbitrary Dimensions with an Exact Spectrum.

Certain nonuniform strain applied to graphene flakes has been shown to induce pseudo-Landau levels in the single-particle spectrum, which can be rationalized in terms of a pseudomagnetic field for electrons near the Dirac points. However, this Landau level structure is, in general, approximate and restricted to low energies. Here, we introduce a family of strained bipartite tight-binding models in arbitrary spatial dimension d and analytically prove that their entire spectrum consists of perfectly degenerate pseudo-Landau levels. This construction generalizes the case of triaxial strain on graphene's honeycomb lattice to arbitrary d; in d=3, our model corresponds to tetraxial strain on the diamond lattice. We discuss general aspects of pseudo-Landau levels in arbitrary d.

Interacting Surface States of Three-Dimensional Topological Insulators.

We numerically investigate the surface states of a strong topological insulator in the presence of strong electron-electron interactions. We choose a spherical topological insulator geometry to make the surface amenable to a finite size analysis. The single-particle problem maps to that of Landau orbitals on the sphere with a magnetic monopole at the center that has unit strength and opposite sign for electrons with opposite spin. Assuming density-density contact interactions, we find superconducting and anomalous (quantum) Hall phases for attractive and repulsive interactions, respectively, as well as chiral fermion and chiral Majorana fermion boundary modes between different phases. Our setup is preeminently adapted to the search for topologically ordered surface terminations that could be microscopically stabilized by tailored surface interaction profiles.

Quantum Paramagnet in a π Flux Triangular Lattice Hubbard Model.

We propose the π flux triangular lattice Hubbard model (π THM) as a prototypical setup to stabilize magnetically disordered quantum states of matter in the presence of charge fluctuations. The quantum paramagnetic domain of the π THM that we identify for intermediate Hubbard U is framed by a Dirac semimetal for weak coupling and by 120° Néel order for strong coupling. Generalizing the Klein duality from spin Hamiltonians to tight-binding models, the π THM maps to a Hubbard model which corresponds to the (J_{H},J_{K})=(-1,2) Heisenberg-Kitaev model in its strong coupling limit. The π THM provides a promising microscopic testing ground for exotic finite-U spin liquid ground states amenable to numerical investigation.

Dimensional crossover and cold-atom realization of topological Mott insulators.

Interacting cold-atomic gases in optical lattices offer an experimental approach to outstanding problems of many body physics. One important example is the interplay of interaction and topology which promises to generate a variety of exotic phases such as the fractionalized Chern insulator or the topological Mott insulator. Both theoretically understanding these states of matter and finding suitable systems that host them have proven to be challenging problems. Here we propose a cold-atom setup where Hubbard on-site interactions give rise to spin liquid-like phases: weak and strong topological Mott insulators. They represent the celebrated paradigm of an interacting and topological quantum state with fractionalized spinon excitations that inherit the topology of the non-interacting system. Our proposal shall help to pave the way for a controlled experimental investigation of this exotic state of matter in optical lattices. Furthermore, it allows for the investigation of a dimensional crossover from a two-dimensional quantum spin Hall insulating phase to a three-dimensional strong topological insulator by tuning the hopping between the layers.

Time-reversal-invariant Hofstadter-Hubbard model with ultracold fermions.

We consider the time-reversal-invariant Hofstadter-Hubbard model which can be realized in cold-atom experiments. In these experiments, an additional staggered potential and an artificial Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling are available. Without interactions, the system exhibits various phases such as topological and normal insulator, metal as well as semi-metal phases with two or even more Dirac cones. Using a combination of real-space dynamical mean-field theory and analytical techniques, we discuss the effect of on-site interactions and determine the corresponding phase diagram. In particular, we investigate the semi-metal to antiferromagnetic insulator transition and the stability of different topological insulator phases in the presence of strong interactions. We compute spectral functions which allow us to study the edge states of the strongly correlated topological phases.

Detecting quantum critical points using bipartite fluctuations.

We show that the concept of bipartite fluctuations F provides a very efficient tool to detect quantum phase transitions in strongly correlated systems. Using state-of-the-art numerical techniques complemented with analytical arguments, we investigate paradigmatic examples for both quantum spins and bosons. As compared to the von Neumann entanglement entropy, we observe that F allows us to find quantum critical points with much better accuracy in one dimension. We further demonstrate that F can be successfully applied to the detection of quantum criticality in higher dimensions with no prior knowledge of the universality class of the transition. Promising approaches to experimentally access fluctuations are discussed for quantum antiferromagnets and cold gases.

Inelastic electron backscattering in a generic helical edge channel.

We evaluate the low-temperature conductance of a weakly interacting one-dimensional helical liquid without axial spin symmetry. The lack of that symmetry allows for inelastic backscattering of a single electron, accompanied by forward scattering of another. This joint effect of weak interactions and potential scattering off impurities results in a temperature-dependent deviation from the quantized conductance, δG ∝ T4. In addition, δG is sensitive to the position of the Fermi level. We determine numerically the parameters entering our generic model for the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang Hamiltonian of a HgTe/CdTe quantum well in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling.