Thouless quantum walks in topological flat bands

Carlo Danieli; Claudio Conti; Laura Pilozzi; Valentina Brosco

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-02140-1

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Thouless quantum walks in topological flat bands

Original Articles

- Thouless quantum walks in topological flat bands
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 8, Pages: 2735-2744(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Institute for Complex Systems, National Research Council (ISC-CNR), Via dei Taurini 19, Rome 00185, Italy
  2.Department of Physics, University of Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, Rome 00185, Italy
  3.Research Center Enrico Fermi, Via Panisperna 89a, Rome 00184, Italy
- Author bio：
  
  Laura Pilozzi (laura.pilozzi@cnr.it)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-02140-1
  CLC：
- Received：31 March 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-10-30，
  
  Accepted：16 November 2025，
  
  Online First：20 May 2026，
  
  Published：31 August 2026
- Accepted：
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Danieli, C. et al. Thouless quantum walks in topological flat bands. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2735-2744 (2026).
DOI：

Danieli, C. et al. Thouless quantum walks in topological flat bands. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2735-2744 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02140-1.

摘要

Abstract

Non-Abelian gauge symmetries are cornerstones of modern theoretical physics

underlying fundamental interactions and the geometric structure of quantum mechanics. However

their potential to control quantum coherence

entanglement

and transport in engineered quantum systems remains to a large extent unexplored. In this work

we propose utilizing non-Abelian Thouless pumping to realize one-dimensional discrete-time quantum walks on topological lattices characterized by degenerate flat bands. Through carefully designed pumping cycles

we implement different classes of holonomic coin and shift operators. This framework allows for the construction of quantum walks that encode the topological and geometric properties of the underlying system. Remarkably

the resulting evolution exhibits parity symmetry breaking and gives rise to a dynamical process governed by a Weyl-like equation

highlighting the deep connection between parity and time-reversal symmetry breaking in quantum walks.

关键词

Keywords

references

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