Preparation of a Laughlin-like fractional Chern insulator on a superconducting quantum processor
Authors: Kamil Dutkiewicz, Bárbara Andrade, Geza Giedke, Tobias Grass
Abstract
Fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) are lattice analogues of fractional quantum Hall states, hosting topological order and fractionalized anyonic excitations. Their realization poses a demanding target for quantum simulation. Here, we realize a bosonic FCI on an IBM Nighthawk superconducting quantum processor using classically optimized variational circuits. We target a Laughlin-like state that is an exact zero-energy ground state of a long-range parent Hamiltonian on a torus, eliminating physical edges and providing a favorable geometry for accessing fractional quantum Hall physics in a small system. On a $4\times4$ qubit lattice, we prepare both the four-boson FCI ground state and a three-boson state hosting two quasiholes. Measurements of particle densities and correlations reproduce the characteristic structure of the target states, while reconstructed chiral magnetization currents resolve the circulating current pattern associated with the quasiholes. The preparation of these strongly correlated topological states with shallow circuits establishes a route toward the digital simulation and manipulation of fractionalized excitations, including measurements of topological invariants and anyonic braiding.
The papers around it, by date and closeness
Higher is closer to this paper; left is older. Lines join papers close to each other: groups of lines are sub-topics. Select a point to see why it is there. Back to the summary of this paper
Papers around this one
Ranked by how close their title and abstract are to this paper’s. Select some to read them together.
Closest papers
-
Realization of fermionic Laughlin state on a quantum processorLingnan Shen, Mao Lin, C. Lin et al. · 2025 · Nature Communications · cited 9 times · Not summarized yet
Realization of fermionic Laughlin states demonstrates a different particle-statistics version of preparing topological Laughlin matter on a quantum processor.
Abstract
Strongly correlated topological phases of matter are central to modern condensed matter physics and quantum information technology but often challenging to probe and control in material systems. The experimental difficulty of accessing these phases has motivated the use of engineered quantum platforms for simulation and manipulation of exotic topological states. Among these, the Laughlin state stands as a cornerstone for topological matter, embodying fractionalization, anyonic excitations, and incompressibility. Although its bosonic analogs have been realized on programmable quantum simulators, a genuine fermionic Laughlin state has yet to be demonstrated on a quantum processor. Here, we rea…
-
Preparation of Fractional Quantum Hall States on Quantum ComputersHao Wu, Lei-Yi-Nan Liu, Zhao-Xin Pei et al. · 2026 · cited 2 times · Not summarized yet
Preparation of Fractional Quantum Hall States on Quantum Computers constructs circuits for FQH states across geometries, complementing this work’s variational preparation of bosonic FCI states.
Abstract
The realization of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states, characterized by fractional charge and intrinsic topological order, on quantum computers represents a central challenge at the interface of condensed matter physics and quantum information science. Current methods are grouped into two types: methods based on (quasi-)adiabatic evolution of complex parent Hamiltonians to yield target states, and circuit-based approaches for direct state preparation, which are confined to effectively one-dimensional systems near the thin cylinder or torus limit. We introduce a complementary scheme relying on direct quantum circuit construction, which works for arbitrary geometries. Specifically, we presen…
-
Realization of fractional quantum Hall state with interacting photonsCan Wang, Feng-Ming Liu, Ming-Cheng Chen et al. · 2024 · Science · cited 84 times · Not summarized yet
Realization of fractional quantum Hall states with photons engineers lattice photon FQH physics in a circuit-QED platform rather than preparing bosonic states on a processor.
Abstract
Fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states are known for their robust topological order and possess properties that are appealing for applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing. An engineered quantum platform would provide opportunities to operate FQH states without an external magnetic field and enhance local and coherent manipulation of these exotic states. We demonstrate a lattice version of photon FQH states using a programmable on-chip platform based on photon blockade and engineering gauge fields on a two-dimensional circuit quantum electrodynamics system. We observe the effective photon Lorentz force and butterfly spectrum in the artificial gauge field, a prerequisite for FQH states. …
-
Topological Quantum Gates on FCIs with Bounded Quantum GeometryH. Sati, U. Schreiber · 2026 · Not summarized yet
Topological Quantum Gates on FCIs with Bounded Quantum Geometry studies braiding observables and anyonic order in two-band FCIs, not their experimental preparation.
Abstract
Two-band 2D fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) have recently been shown, in principle, to admit unusual anyonic order, associated with Bloch Hopfions localized in momentum space. Here we show that bounding the integrated quantum metric along one primitive Brillouin-zone cycle may refine this topological order to $|C|$ distinct braiding observables, cyclically permuted by lattice translations, for Chern numbers $|C|>1$. The cyclic structure entails mildly non-abelian braiding phases and otherwise matches the spectral flow exhibited by the FCI's hybrid Wannier states, with the metric bound equivalently a bound on the states'real-space spread. We give a classification of quantum gates in princi…
-
Measurable signatures of bosonic fractional Chern insulator states and their fractional excitations in a quantum-gas microscopeBotao Wang, Xiao-yu Dong, A. Eckardt · 2021 · SciPost Physics · cited 38 times · Not summarized yet
Measurable signatures of bosonic FCI states numerically examines Laughlin-like states and fractional excitations, focusing on detection in a quantum-gas microscope.
Abstract
The recent progress in engineering topological band structures in optical-lattice systems makes it promising to study fractional Chern insulator states in these systems. Here we consider a realistic finite system of a few repulsively interacting bosons on a square lattice with magnetic flux and sharp edges, as it can be realized in quantum-gas microscopes. We investigate under which conditions a fractional Chern insulator state corresponding to the Laughlin-like state at filling \nu=1/2ν=1/2 can be stabilized and its fractional excitations probed. Using numerical simulations, we find an incompressible bulk density at the expected filling for systems, whose linear extent is as small as 6-8 si…
-
Fractional Chern insulators of few bosons in a box: Hall plateaus from center-of-mass drifts and density profilesC. Repellin, J. Léonard, N. Goldman · 2020 · Physical Review A · cited 47 times · Not summarized yet
Fractional Chern insulators of few bosons in a box numerically probes Hall-drift and density signatures of few-boson FCI states.
Abstract
Realizing strongly correlated topological phases of ultracold gases is a central goal for ongoing experiments. While fractional quantum Hall states could soon be implemented in small atomic ensembles, detecting their signatures in few-particle settings remains a fundamental challenge. In this work, we numerically analyze the center-of-mass Hall drift of a small ensemble of hardcore bosons, initially prepared in the ground state of the Harper-Hofstadter-Hubbard model in a box potential. By monitoring the Hall drift upon release, for a wide range of magnetic flux values, we identify an emergent Hall plateau compatible with a fractional Chern insulator state: The extracted Hall conductivity app…
-
Creating and Manipulating a Laughlin-Type ν=1/3 Fractional Quantum Hall State on a Quantum Computer with Linear Depth CircuitsArmin Rahmani, Kevin J. Sung, H. Putterman et al. · 2020 · arXiv: Strongly Correlated Electrons · preprint, not peer reviewed · cited 26 times · Not summarized yet
Creating and Manipulating a Laughlin-Type state uses neighboring-qubit circuits to prepare Laughlin states and quasiparticles in a quasi-one-dimensional geometry.
Abstract
Here we present an efficient quantum algorithm to generate an equivalent many-body state to Laughlin's $\nu=1/3$ fractional quantum Hall state on a digitized quantum computer. Our algorithm only uses quantum gates acting on neighboring qubits in a quasi-one-dimensional setting, and its circuit depth is linear in the number of qubits, i.e., the number of Landau orbitals in the second quantized picture. We identify correlation functions that serve as signatures of the Laughlin state and discuss how to obtain them on a quantum computer. We also discuss a generalization of the algorithm for creating quasiparticles in the Laughlin state. This paves the way for several important studies, including…
-
Fractional quantum Hall effect in optical latticesM. Hafezi, A. Sørensen, E. Demler et al. · 2006 · Physical Review A · cited 197 times · Not summarized yet
Fractional quantum Hall effect in optical lattices analyzes lattice conditions and topological diagnostics for bosonic FQH states.
Abstract
We analyze a recently proposed method to create fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states of atoms confined in optical lattices [A. Soerensen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 086803 (2005)]. Extending the previous work, we investigate conditions under which the FQH effect can be achieved for bosons on a lattice with an effective magnetic field and finite on-site interaction. Furthermore, we characterize the ground state in such systems by calculating Chern numbers which can provide direct signatures of topological order and explore regimes where the characterization in terms of wave-function overlap fails. We also discuss various issues which are relevant for the practical realization of such FQH sta…
Prior work it builds on
-
Optimal control for preparing fractional quantum Hall states in optical latticesLing-Na Wu, Xi-Kun Li, Nathan Goldman et al. · 2025 · Physical review B · cited 9 times · Not summarized yet
Optimal control for preparing FQH states optimizes preparation protocols for optical-lattice systems, rather than variational circuits on a quantum processor.
Abstract
Preparing fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states represents a key challenge for quantum simulators. While small Laughlin-type states have been realized by manipulating two atoms or two photons, scaling up these settings to larger ensembles stands as an impractical task using existing methods and protocols. In this work, we propose to use optimal-control methods to substantially accelerate the preparation of small Laughlin-type states, and demonstrate that the resulting protocols are also well suited to realize larger FQH states under realistic preparation times. Our schemes are specifically built on the recent optical-lattice experiment [Leonard et al., Nature (2023)], and consist in optimizin…
-
Fractional quantum Hall states of atoms in optical lattices.A. Sørensen, E. Demler, M. Lukin · 2004 · Physical Review Letters · cited 337 times · Not summarized yet
Fractional quantum Hall states of atoms in optical lattices proposes creating FQH states by melting a Mott insulator and discusses their observation.
Abstract
We describe a method to create fractional quantum Hall states of atoms confined in optical lattices. We show that the dynamics of the atoms in the lattice is analogous to the motion of a charged particle in a magnetic field if an oscillating quadrupole potential is applied together with a periodic modulation of the tunneling between lattice sites. In a suitable parameter regime the ground state in the lattice is of the fractional quantum Hall type, and we show how these states can be reached by melting a Mott-insulator state in a superlattice potential. Finally, we discuss techniques to observe these strongly correlated states.
-
Local models of fractional quantum Hall states in lattices and physical implementationA. Nielsen, G. Sierra, J. Cirac · 2013 · Nature Communications · cited 78 times · Not summarized yet
Local models of fractional quantum Hall states in lattices and physical implementation concerns lattice models and their physical realization.
-
Exact parent Hamiltonian for the quantum Hall states in a lattice.E. Kapit, E. Mueller · 2010 · Physical Review Letters · cited 122 times · Not summarized yet
Exact parent Hamiltonian for quantum Hall states in a lattice establishes lattice Laughlin states as exact ground states, providing the parent-Hamiltonian basis used here.
Abstract
We study lattice models of charged particles in uniform magnetic fields. We show how longer range hopping can be engineered to produce a massively degenerate manifold of single-particle ground states with wave functions identical to those making up the lowest Landau level of continuum electrons in a magnetic field. We find that in the presence of local interactions, and at the appropriate filling factors, Laughlin's fractional quantum Hall wave function is an exact many-body ground state of our lattice model. The hopping matrix elements in our model fall off as a Gaussian, and when the flux per plaquette is small compared to the fundamental flux quantum one only needs to include nearest and …
-
Dissipative preparation of Laughlin-like statesTong Liu · 2026 · cited 2 times · Not summarized yet
Dissipative preparation of Laughlin-like states proposes local loss and pumping to prepare Laughlin states, unlike this work’s number-conserving unitary circuits.
Abstract
Fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states are a central paradigm of strongly correlated quantum matter and a key platform for topological quantum computation. Here, we propose a purely dissipative protocol based on local loss and pump channels for preparing Laughlin-like states at filling $1/3$, with a possible extension to other $1/M$ filling states. We show that the Laughlin-like state is the exact unique steady state of the Lindbladian under open boundary conditions. Finite-size analysis of the Lindbladian gap suggests efficient dissipative preparation over the system sizes and parameter regime considered. We further demonstrate adiabatic pumping of a Laughlin-like state through slow modulatio…
Go further
How are these papers found?
We compare the title and abstract of this paper with those of every paper summarized on this site, and with the papers Semantic Scholar recommends, those it cites and those citing it (for a much-cited paper, its most recent citations and, from OpenAlex, the most cited ones). Among the prior work and the follow-ups, the papers that use each other in depth, a method it uses and the much-cited follow-ups come a little higher. The levels (very close, close, related) come from the similarity of the texts, not from a judgment of quality; * marks a paper without an abstract, compared by its title. The sentence under a paper is written by an AI from the two abstracts: check it in the papers. A paper marked not relevant by three readers leaves the list.
Updated on 3 November 2026.