- Letter
Characterizing topological excitations of a long-range Heisenberg model with trapped ions
Phys. Rev. B 105, L241103 – Published 3 June, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.105.L241103
Abstract
Realizing and characterizing interacting topological phases in synthetic quantum systems is a formidable challenge. Here, we propose a Floquet protocol to realize the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with power-law decaying interactions. Based on analytical and numerical arguments, we show that this model features a quantum phase transition from a liquid to a valence bond solid that spontaneously breaks lattice translational symmetry and is reminiscent of the Majumdar-Ghosh state. The different phases can be probed dynamically by measuring the evolution of a fully dimerized state. We moreover introduce an interferometric protocol to characterize the topological excitations and the bulk topological invariants of the interacting many-body system.
