Variational preparation and characterization of chiral spin liquids in quantum circuits

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Zhang, Zi-Yang, Kim, Donghoon, Chen, Ji-Yao
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Zhang, Zi-Yang
Kim, Donghoon
Chen, Ji-Yao
author_facet Zhang, Zi-Yang
Kim, Donghoon
Chen, Ji-Yao
contents Quantum circuits have been shown to be a fertile ground for realizing long-range entangled phases of matter. While various quantum double models with non-chiral topological order have been theoretically investigated and experimentally implemented, the realization and characterization of chiral topological phases have remained less explored. Here we show that chiral topological phases in spin systems, i.e., chiral spin liquids, can be prepared in quantum circuits using the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) framework. On top of the VQE ground state, signatures of the chiral topological order are revealed using the recently proposed tangent space excitation ansatz for quantum circuits. We show that, both topological ground state degeneracy and the chiral edge mode can be faithfully captured by this approach. We demonstrate our approach using the Kitaev honeycomb model, finding excellent agreement of low-energy excitation spectrum on quantum circuits with exact solution in all topological sectors. Further applying this approach to a non-exactly solvable chiral spin liquid model on square lattice, the results suggest this approach works well even when the topological sectors are not exactly known.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_14769
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Variational preparation and characterization of chiral spin liquids in quantum circuits
Zhang, Zi-Yang
Kim, Donghoon
Chen, Ji-Yao
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Physics
Quantum circuits have been shown to be a fertile ground for realizing long-range entangled phases of matter. While various quantum double models with non-chiral topological order have been theoretically investigated and experimentally implemented, the realization and characterization of chiral topological phases have remained less explored. Here we show that chiral topological phases in spin systems, i.e., chiral spin liquids, can be prepared in quantum circuits using the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) framework. On top of the VQE ground state, signatures of the chiral topological order are revealed using the recently proposed tangent space excitation ansatz for quantum circuits. We show that, both topological ground state degeneracy and the chiral edge mode can be faithfully captured by this approach. We demonstrate our approach using the Kitaev honeycomb model, finding excellent agreement of low-energy excitation spectrum on quantum circuits with exact solution in all topological sectors. Further applying this approach to a non-exactly solvable chiral spin liquid model on square lattice, the results suggest this approach works well even when the topological sectors are not exactly known.
title Variational preparation and characterization of chiral spin liquids in quantum circuits
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.14769