Fractional topological phase on spatially encoded photonic qudits

TL;DR

This paper explores how entangled photonic qudits exhibit fractional topological phases during cyclic evolutions, emphasizing the role of spatial correlations and Hilbert space dimension, supported by a realistic experimental proposal.

Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence of fractional topological phases in entangled photonic qudits and proposes an experimental setup to observe these phenomena.

Findings

Spatial correlations reveal multiple topological phases

Hilbert space dimension influences phase acquisition

Experimental predictions support theoretical analysis

Abstract

We discuss the appearance of fractional topological phases on cyclic evolutions of entangled qudits encoded on photonic degrees of freedom. We show how the spatial correlations between photons generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion can be used to evidence the multiple topological phases acquired by entangled qudits and the role played by the Hilbert space dimension. A realistic experimental proposal is presented with numerical predictions of the expected results.