Simulation of topological superconductors and their competing orders using photon-mediated interactions
ORAL
Abstract
Realizing and controlling the unconventional pairing featured by topological superconductors remains a central challenge. We introduce a cavity QED quantum simulator that engineers competing chiral px+ipy and dx^2-y^2+idxy orders by tailoring cavity-mediated couplings between atomic pseudospins that emulate momentum-dependent pairing channels. The desired spatially inhomogeneous cavity-mediated couplings can be engineered in a 2D optical lattice using incommensurate cavity-lattice wavelengths naturally occurring in cavity QED systems. This minimal and fully tunable platform enables controlled state preparation and continuous measurement of superconducting order parameters, revealing phases in both equilibrium and sudden-quench settings with a single dominant pairing channel, as well as coexistence regimes with competing pairing channels. Crucially, our implementation allows direct observation of topological transitions in and out of equilibrium, providing a powerful route to the quantum simulation of competing topological superconducting phases that remain elusive in solid-state and ultracold-atom systems.
*This work is supported by the Vannevar-Bush Faculty Fellowship, by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, Quantum Systems Accelerator, by the National Science Foundation and by NIST. A. C. acknowledges support from the Simons Foundation during the completion of this work.
–
Publication: arXiv:2512.17889
Presenters
-
Anjun Chu
- University of Chicago