Simulating spin chains using a superconducting circuit: gauge invariance, superadiabatic transport, and broken time-reversal symmetry

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a superconducting circuit can simulate complex spin chain phenomena, including gauge invariance and broken time-reversal symmetry, by mapping to a three-level system with enhanced transport via superadiabaticity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to emulate spin lattice effects using a three-level superconducting circuit, highlighting gauge invariance and non-reciprocal transport.

Findings

Experimental reproduction of gauge invariance effects

Observation of non-reciprocity in spin transport

Enhanced population transfer via superadiabaticity

Abstract

Simulation of materials by using quantum processors is envisioned to be a major direction of development in quantum information science. Here we exploit the mathematical analogies between a triangular spin lattice with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya coupling on one edge and a three-level system driven by three fields in a loop configuation to emulate spin-transport effects. We show that the spin transport efficiency, seen in the three-level system as population transfer, is enhanced when the conditions for superadiabaticity are satisfied. We demonstrate experimentally that phenomena characteristic to spin lattices due to gauge invariance, non-reciprocity, and broken time-reversal symmetry can be reproduced in the three-level system.