paper

Protected quantum gates using qubit doublons in dynamical optical lattices

arXiv:2507.22112 · doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10285-1

Abstract

Quantum computing represents a central challenge in modern science. Neutral atoms in optical lattices have emerged as a leading computing platform, with collisional gates offering a stable mechanism for quantum logic. However, previous experiments have treated ultracold collisions as a dynamically fine-tuned process, which obscures the underlying quantum- geometry and statistics crucial for realising intrinsically robust operations. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a purely geometric two-qubit swap gate by transiently populating qubit doublon states of fermionic atoms in a dynamical optical lattice. The presence of these doublon states, together with fermionic exchange anti-symmetry, enables a two-particle quantum holonomy -- a geometric evolution where dynamical phases are absent. This yields a gate mechanism that is intrinsically protected against fluctuations and inhomogeneities of the confining potentials. The resilience of the gate is further reinforced by time-reversal and chiral symmetries of the Hamiltonian. We experimentally validate this exceptional protection, achieving a loss-corrected amplitude fidelity of measured across the entire system consisting of more than atom pairs. When combined with recently developed topological pumping methods for atom transport, our results pave the way for large-scale, highly connected quantum processors. This work introduces a new paradigm for quantum logic, transforming fundamental symmetries and quantum statistics into a powerful resource for fault-tolerant computation.

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