Floquet Insulators and Lattice Fermions.

Floquet insulators are periodically driven quantum systems that can host novel topological phases as a function of the drive parameters. These new phases exhibit features reminiscent of fermion doubling in discrete-time lattice fermion theories. We make this suggestion concrete by mapping the spectrum of a noninteracting (1+1)D Floquet insulator for certain drive parameters onto that of a discrete-time lattice fermion theory with a time-independent Hamiltonian. The resulting Hamiltonian is distinct from the Floquet Hamiltonian that generates stroboscopic dynamics. It can take the form of a discrete-time Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with half the number of spatial sites of the original model, or of a (1+1)D Wilson-Dirac theory with one quarter of the spatial sites.

Measurement and Feedback Driven Entanglement Transition in the Probabilistic Control of Chaos.

We uncover a dynamical entanglement transition in a monitored quantum system that is heralded by a local order parameter. Classically, chaotic systems can be stochastically controlled onto unstable periodic orbits and exhibit controlled and uncontrolled phases as a function of the rate at which the control is applied. We show that such control transitions persist in open quantum systems where control is implemented with local measurements and unitary feedback. Starting from a simple classical model with a known control transition, we define a quantum model that exhibits a diffusive transition between a chaotic volume-law entangled phase and a disentangled controlled phase. Unlike other entanglement transitions in monitored quantum circuits, this transition can also be probed by correlation functions without resolving individual quantum trajectories.

Extracting Quantum Many-Body Scarred Eigenstates with Matrix Product States.

Quantum many-body scarred systems host nonthermal excited eigenstates immersed in a sea of thermal ones. In cases where exact expressions for these special eigenstates are not known, it is computationally demanding to distinguish them from their exponentially many thermal neighbors. We propose a matrix-product-state (MPS) algorithm, dubbed DMRG-S, to extract such states at system sizes far beyond the scope of exact diagonalization. Using this technique, we obtain scarred eigenstates in Rydberg-blockaded chains of up to 80 sites and perform a finite-size scaling study to address the lingering question of the stability for the Néel state revivals in the thermodynamic limit. Our method also provides a systematic way to obtain exact MPS representations for scarred eigenstates near the target energy without a priori knowledge. In particular, we find several new scarred eigenstates with exact MPS representations in kinetically constrained spin and clock models. The combination of numerical and analytical investigations in our work provides a new methodology for future studies of quantum many-body scars.

Digital quantum simulation of Floquet symmetry-protected topological phases.

Quantum many-body systems away from equilibrium host a rich variety of exotic phenomena that are forbidden by equilibrium thermodynamics. A prominent example is that of discrete time crystals1-8, in which time-translational symmetry is spontaneously broken in periodically driven systems. Pioneering experiments have observed signatures of time crystalline phases with trapped ions9,10, solid-state spin systems11-15, ultracold atoms16,17 and superconducting qubits18-20. Here we report the observation of a distinct type of non-equilibrium state of matter, Floquet symmetry-protected topological phases, which are implemented through digital quantum simulation with an array of programmable superconducting qubits. We observe robust long-lived temporal correlations and subharmonic temporal response for the edge spins over up to 40 driving cycles using a circuit of depth exceeding 240 and acting on 26 qubits. We demonstrate that the subharmonic response is independent of the initial state, and experimentally map out a phase boundary between the Floquet symmetry-protected topological and thermal phases. Our results establish a versatile digital simulation approach to exploring exotic non-equilibrium phases of matter with current noisy intermediate-scale quantum processors21.

Localization and Criticality in Antiblockaded Two-Dimensional Rydberg Atom Arrays.

Controllable Rydberg atom arrays have provided new insights into fundamental properties of quantum matter both in and out of equilibrium. In this work, we study the effect of experimentally relevant positional disorder on Rydberg atoms trapped in a 2D square lattice under antiblockade (facilitation) conditions. We show that the facilitation conditions lead the connectivity graph of a particular subspace of the full Hilbert space to form a 2D Lieb lattice, which features a singular flat band. Remarkably, we find three distinct regimes as the disorder strength is varied: a critical regime, a delocalized but nonergodic regime, and a regime with a disorder-induced flat band. The critical regime's existence depends crucially upon the singular flat band in our model, and is absent in any 1D array or ladder system. We propose to use quench dynamics to probe the three different regimes experimentally.

Quench Dynamics of a Fermi Gas with Strong Nonlocal Interactions.

We induce strong nonlocal interactions in a 2D Fermi gas in an optical lattice using Rydberg dressing. The system is approximately described by a t - V model on a square lattice where the fermions experience isotropic nearest-neighbor interactions and are free to hop only along one direction. We measure the interactions using many-body Ramsey interferometry and study the lifetime of the gas in the presence of tunneling, finding that tunneling does not reduce the lifetime. To probe the interplay of nonlocal interactions with tunneling, we investigate the short-time-relaxation dynamics of charge-density waves in the gas. We find that strong nearest-neighbor interactions slow down the relaxation. Our work opens the door for quantum simulations of systems with strong nonlocal interactions such as extended Fermi-Hubbard models.

Hilbert-Space Fragmentation from Strict Confinement.

We study one-dimensional spin-1/2 models in which strict confinement of Ising domain walls leads to the fragmentation of Hilbert space into exponentially many disconnected subspaces. Whereas most previous works emphasize dipole moment conservation as an essential ingredient for such fragmentation, we instead require two commuting U(1) conserved quantities associated with the total domain-wall number and the total magnetization. The latter arises naturally from the confinement of domain walls. Remarkably, while some connected components of the Hilbert space thermalize, others are integrable by Bethe ansatz. We further demonstrate how this Hilbert-space fragmentation pattern arises perturbatively in the confining limit of Z_{2} gauge theory coupled to fermionic matter, leading to a hierarchy of timescales for motion of the fermions. This model can be realized experimentally in two complementary settings.

Weak Ergodicity Breaking and Quantum Many-Body Scars in Spin-1 XY Magnets.

We study the spin-1 XY model on a hypercubic lattice in d dimensions and show that this well-known nonintegrable model hosts an extensive set of anomalous finite-energy-density eigenstates with remarkable properties. Namely, they exhibit subextensive entanglement entropy and spatiotemporal long-range order, both believed to be impossible in typical highly excited eigenstates of nonintegrable quantum many-body systems. While generic initial states are expected to thermalize, we show analytically that the eigenstates we construct lead to weak ergodicity breaking in the form of persistent oscillations of local observables following certain quantum quenches-in other words, these eigenstates provide an archetypal example of so-called quantum many-body scars. This Letter opens the door to the analytical study of the microscopic origin, dynamical signatures, and stability of such phenomena.

Exact Localized and Ballistic Eigenstates in Disordered Chaotic Spin Ladders and the Fermi-Hubbard Model.

We demonstrate the existence of exact atypical many-body eigenstates in a class of disordered, interacting one-dimensional quantum systems that includes the Fermi-Hubbard model as a special case. These atypical eigenstates, which generically have finite energy density and are exponentially many in number, are populated by noninteracting excitations. They can exhibit Anderson localization with area-law eigenstate entanglement or, surprisingly, ballistic transport at any disorder strength. These properties differ strikingly from those of typical eigenstates nearby in energy, which we show give rise to diffusive transport as expected in a chaotic quantum system. We discuss how to observe these atypical eigenstates in cold-atom experiments realizing the Fermi-Hubbard model, and comment on the robustness of their properties.

Floquet Supersymmetry.

We show that time-reflection symmetry in periodically driven (Floquet) quantum systems enables an inherently nonequilibrium phenomenon structurally similar to quantum-mechanical supersymmetry. In particular, we find Floquet analogs of the Witten index that place lower bounds on the degeneracies of states with quasienergies 0 and π. Moreover, we show that in some cases time-reflection symmetry can also interchange fermions and bosons, leading to fermion-boson pairs with opposite quasienergy. We provide a simple class of disordered, interacting, and ergodic Floquet models with an exponentially large number of states at quasienergies 0 and π, which are robust as long as the time-reflection symmetry is preserved. Floquet supersymmetry manifests itself in the evolution of certain local observables as a period-doubling effect with dramatic finite-size scaling, providing a clear signature for experiments.

Non-Abelian Braiding of Light.

Many topological phenomena first proposed and observed in the context of electrons in solids have recently found counterparts in photonic and acoustic systems. In this work, we demonstrate that non-Abelian Berry phases can arise when coherent states of light are injected into "topological guided modes" in specially fabricated photonic waveguide arrays. These modes are photonic analogues of topological zero modes in electronic systems. Light traveling inside spatially well-separated topological guided modes can be braided, leading to the accumulation of non-Abelian phases, which depend on the order in which the guided beams are wound around one another. Notably, these effects survive the limit of large photon occupation, and can thus also be understood as wave phenomena arising directly from Maxwell's equations, without resorting to the quantization of light. We propose an optical interference experiment as a direct probe of this non-Abelian braiding of light.

Materials design from nonequilibrium steady states: driven graphene as a tunable semiconductor with topological properties.

Controlling the properties of materials by driving them out of equilibrium is an exciting prospect that has only recently begun to be explored. In this Letter we give a striking theoretical example of such materials design: a tunable gap in monolayer graphene is generated by exciting a particular optical phonon. We show that the system reaches a steady state whose transport properties are the same as if the system had a static electronic gap, controllable by the driving amplitude. Moreover, the steady state displays topological phenomena: there are chiral edge currents, which circulate a fractional charge e/2 per rotation cycle, with the frequency set by the optical phonon frequency.