Original title: Thouless pumping and generation of squeezed Fock-state superpositions in a Fock-state lattice
Ruo Kun Cai, Ling Lin, Chun Wang Wu, Zhi Jiao Deng +1 · September 2026
Making specific quantum states is difficult because quantum systems are fragile and easily disrupted. Researchers looked at Thouless pumpingA process where particles move in quantized steps across a lattice due to topological properties., a way to move quantum states reliably using topology, inside a one-dimensional semi-infinite Fock-state latticeA structure representing quantum states of particles, like a ladder of energy levels for photons.. In this kind of lattice, the jump strengths between states are naturally uneven because they scale with the square root of the particle number, written as the square root of n. In the dimer limit, the researchers numerically evaluated the system's topological numbers and tracked how states move. They then added an extra coupling step and a squeezing transformationA quantum operation that reduces uncertainty in one property while increasing it in another, often used to create non-classical states.. This let them pump states to reliably build superpositions of squeezed Fock states, showing that topological transport can help engineer non-classical quantum states.
Imagine you are sorting marbles into rows of boxes arranged on a slope that gets steeper higher up. Normally, you might just push marbles from one box to the next, but the push required depends on which box you're starting from, making it hard to place marbles precisely. In this paper, the Fock-state lattice is like such a setup with quantum states as boxes. Thouless pumping uses this changing difficulty to not only move marbles (particles) but also to create specific arrangements (superpositions) that are stable and useful for building quantum devices.
This helps researchers create specific quantum states needed for quantum technologies like computers and sensors. By using topological effects, the method can produce states that are robust and useful for advanced applications.
The abstract doesn't explicitly state limitations, but the work is based on numerical evaluation in the dimer limit, suggesting it may be confined to theoretical models without experimental verification or applicability to more complex systems.
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Thouless pumping and generation of squeezed Fock-state superpositions in a Fock-state lattice — Ruo Kun Cai, Ling Lin, Chun Wang Wu et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.