Deep inside a quantum material blasted out of equilibrium, electrons can shatter into smaller ghost-like fragments called partons that have never been seen before. This matters because topological quantum matter—materials whose exotic properties resist disruption—could form the basis for ultra-low-power electronics and fault-tolerant quantum computers. But the fundamental particles that give these materials their strange behaviour have remained invisible to experiments. The researchers hypothesise that these particles are partons: fractionalised pieces of electrons that normally stay locked inside, but might reveal themselves when the material is knocked far from equilibrium. If successful, this fundamental science project will confirm the existence of a new kind of particle emerging from strong interactions and quantum geometry. It will also advance understanding of how topological materials behave when pushed out of equilibrium—knowledge essential for building quantum computers that can correct their own errors. The team will use quantum simulators made from ultracold atoms and digital quantum computers as “parton accelerators” to study these fragments in real time. The work is curiosity-driven, but past discoveries in topology have already won three Nobel prizes and led to technologies that quietly underpin modern electronics.
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Topology is a branch of mathematics that describes properties of objects that remain robust under smooth deformations. Landmark discoveries in the field of condensed matter physics over the past four decades, recognised by three Nobel prizes in 1985, 1998 and 2016, have shown that certain materials in the regime of the fractional quantum Hall effect can exhibit similar insensitivity to external perturbations. This "topological" robustness underpins many remarkable properties, for example dissipationless currents circulating along the boundary of the material sample, while the bulk hosts novel quasiparticle excitations that behave as neither fermions nor bosons. These exotic properties could be harnessed to make ultra-low power electronic devices, and they could revolutionise the burgeoning field of quantum computing by shielding the computation from unwanted sources of errors. This proposal brings together a new UK-Ireland team of theorists, with experimental Project Partners at UCL and LENS (Florence, Italy), tasked with revealing the true nature of fundamental quasiparticle excitations of topological quantum matter. Our hypothesis is that these particles are "partons", i.e., fractionalised electrons with rich geometrical properties that emerge from strong interactions and quantum effects present within the topological material. In ordinary circumstances, partons are tightly bound within the constituent electrons of the topological matter, hence they have remained invisible to previous experiments. However, when the material is taken out of its equilibrium state, partons can exhibit observable signatures, which we will elucidate. The overarching goal of this proposal is to establish a new UK-Ireland partnership for topological quantum matter out of equilibrium. We will employ the emerging quantum technologies, such as quantum simulators made of ultracold atoms in optical lattices and digital quantum computers, as "parton accelerators": by exciting topological matter to high energies, we will study partons via their characteristic imprints on the dynamics of the system. We will develop state-of-the-art numerical simulations of fractional quantum Hall systems based on partons, and we will ultimately formulate an effective quantum field theory for describing topological quantum matter based on partons. The success of our objectives will advance the understanding of nonequilibrium properties of topological materials, which is key to their applications as platforms for fault-tolerant quantum computing. It will also pave the way towards an experimental observation of a new kind of particle that emerges from the interplay of strong correlations and geometric fluctuations in quantum materials, which will impact diverse condensed matter systems including fractional Chern insulators, quantum spin liquids and twisted van der Waals materials. Our use of quantum simulators for observing real-time dynamics of partons will boost the impact of results across a broad spectrum of synthetic matter platforms that are increasingly used for studying many-body phenomena outside of solid state materials. Finally, through collaboration with visual artists and by developing pedagogical workshops that target pupils in areas of low progression to higher education, our suite of public engagement activities will raise the profile of topology and quantum matter among the general public.
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