Interplay between disorder and topology in Thouless pumping on a superconducting quantum processor

Abstract

Topological phases are robust against weak perturbations, but break down when disorder becomes sufficiently strong. However, moderate disorder can also induce topologically nontrivial phases. Thouless pumping, as a (1+1)D counterpart of the integer quantum Hall effect, is one of the simplest manifestations of topology. Here, we report experimental observations of the competition and interplay between Thouless pumping and disorder on a 41-qubit superconducting quantum processor. We improve a Floquet engineering technique to realize cycles of adiabatic pumping by simultaneously varying the on-site potentials and the hopping couplings. We demonstrate Thouless pumping in the presence of disorder and show its breakdown as the strength of disorder increases. Moreover, we observe two types of topological pumping that are induced by on-site potential disorder and hopping disorder, respectively. In particular, an intrinsic topological pump that is induced by quasi-periodic hopping disorder has never been experimentally realized before. Our highly controllable system provides a valuable quantum simulating platform for studying various aspects of topological physics in the presence of disorder.

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• Prethermalization by Random Multipolar Driving on a 78-Qubit Superconducting Processor
• Extreme disorder in crystalline perovskite oxide: a new paradigm in quantum materials research
• Microwave Engineering of Tunable Spin Interactions with Superconducting Qubits
• Recent progress on disorder-induced topological phases
• Reentrant topology and reverse pumping in a quasiperiodic flux ladder
• Synthetic $\pi$-flux system in 2D superconducting qubit array with tunable coupling
• Topological phases of bosons with local parity coupling on a dimerized lattice
• A strong-driving toolkit for topological Floquet energy pumps with superconducting circuits
• Remote entanglement generation via enhanced quantum state transfer