Event Details

Interest continues to grow in photonic and phononic analogues of topological electronic phases. These systems are typically non-interacting, and have the same band structure and edge state dispersion as their fermionic counterparts. In this talk I'll discuss recent theory work in my group on a class of bosonic systems where this correspondence fails. They involve using parametric “two-photon” driving, and have Hamiltonians that superficially resemble those of topological superconductors. Among the surprising effects that emerge are the presence of topologically-protected instabilities that can be harnessed for non-reciprocal quantum amplification, and effective non-Hermitian dynamics in a bosonic analogue of the Kitaev-Majorana chain. I'll discuss how these ideas could be realized in a variety of different experimental platforms, including superconducting quantum circuits and coupled arrays of optical resonators.