Programmable higher-order nonequilibrium topological phases on a superconducting quantum processor
- Haoran Qian
- Ming Gong
- Jiahui Zhang
- Shaojun Guo
- Chen Zha
- Fusheng Chen
- Yangsen Ye
- Yulin Wu
- Sirui Cao
- Chong Ying
- Qingling Zhu
- He-Liang Huang
- Youwei Zhao
- Shaowei Li
- Jiale Yu
- Daojin Fan
- Dachao Wu
- Hong Su
- Hui Deng
- Hao Rong
- Yuan Li
- Kaili Zhang
- Tung-Hsun Chung
- Futian Liang
- Jin Lin
- Yu Xu
- Cheng Guo
- Na Li
- Kai Yan
- Fei-Fan Su
- Gang Wu
- Yong-Heng Huo
- Cheng-Zhi Peng
- Chao-Yang Lu
- Feng Mei
- Suotang Jia
- Xiaobo Zhu
- Jian-Wei Pan
2025-11-27
Topological phases of matter are of both fundamental and practical interest. In this study, we implemented both equilibrium and nonequilibrium higher-order topological phases using a two-dimensional programmable superconducting quantum processor. Quantum programming of nonequilibrium higher-order topological phases was achieved by constructing quantum circuits comprising >50 cycles of Floquet operators on a six-by-six qubit array. Additionally, we introduce a universal approach based on measuring the dynamics of chiral density to identify distinct nonequilibrium higher-order topological features, including Floquet corner topological invariants and π-energy topological corner modes. Our work may enable the use of programmable quantum processors to explore exotic higher-order nonequilibrium topological phases of matter.