Topological Anderson Localization Transition in Time-Multiplexed Quantum Walks

Abstract

The interplay between disorder and topology triggers interesting effects for the propagation of quantum particles in low-dimensional network structures. For instance, the occurrence of Anderson localization, a commonly observed effect in a quantum network with static disorder, can be suppressed by introducing topology-a phenomenon dubbed as topological Anderson localization transition [1]. In one-dimensional systems, for example, disorder induces localization on a short length scale while topology counters that through long-range correlations, yielding divergent correlation length and extremely slow spreading at quantum criticality. However, its experimental demonstration still remains an outstanding challenge as that would require, in contrast to Anderson localization transition, addi¬tional control over internal degrees of freedom, which is hard to implement, for instance, in cold-atom systems [2]. Quantum walks (QWs), a quantum analog of random walks, comprising quantum coin toss and conditioned step operations are already established for studying quantum transport phenomena, such as, disorder and topology [5]. Based on our theoretical proposal [3], here, we provide an experimental route using time-multiplexed quantum walk [4] for evidencing the targeted phenomenon. © 2021 IEEE.