• Accepted Paper

Interferometric readout of momentum-space topology in a programmable dissipative photonic circuit

Andrea Cataldo, Emil J. Bergholtz, Daniel Leykam, Jun Gao, and Ali W. Elshaari

Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 28 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xkht-64kc

Abstract

Topology under non-Hermitian dynamics is encoded in the phase of the bulk evolution, yet strong dissipation suppresses the amplitudes carrying it. We resolve this using a programmable photonic integrated circuit that implements such dynamics in synthetic momentum space through unitary dilation, with the phase recovered by phase-shifted interferometry. For the non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, the protocol distinguishes trivial and non-trivial Zak phases and yields a coherence winding q = ±1 induced by an exceptional point. Extending to a synthetic torus via a Rice-Mele pump gives the first Chern number Ch1 = 0, 1 for trivial and non-trivial cycles, showing a programmable route to momentum-space topology under strongly dissipative non-Hermitian dynamics.

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