Quantum simulation of the bosonic Kitaev chain

Superconducting quantum circuits are used to simulate the bosonic analog of the fermionic Kitaev chain, a 1D tight-binding model exhibiting features associated with non-Hermitian systems. The experiment uses a multimode superconducting parametric cavity, mapping lattice sites to cavity frequency modes and creating tunable complex hopping and pairing terms via parametric pumping. The researchers demonstrate chiral transport, quadrature wavefunction localization, and boundary condition sensitivity, serving as precursors to nontrivial topology and the non-Hermitian skin effect.

Jamal H. Busnaina, Zheng Shi, Alexander McDonald, Dmytro Dubyna, Ibrahim Nsanzineza, Jimmy S. C. Hung, C. W. Sandbo Chang, Aashish A. Clerk, Christopher M. Wilson