Non-abelian Fractional Chern Insulators of ultracold atoms – NAbelianChern

Non-abelian (NA) anyons are particles beyond fermions and bosons whose exotic exchange statistics holds the key to decoherence-free quantum computation. They emerge as collective excitations in the fractional quantum Hall effect, but require a large magnetic field, an important drawback in view of technological applications. NA anyons may be realized in the absence of a magnetic field in fractional Chern insulators (FCIs), which are lattice phases with topological band properties. Thanks to recent progress in preparing cold atomic gases, abelian FCIs may soon be realized in experiments. However, key conceptual obstacles prevent the realization of NA FCIs. This project aims to fill this gap by providing realistic models and measurable probes of NA FCIs in cold atoms. We will numerically extract universal topological quantities to validate our new model. We will develop and validate practical detection protocols thanks to time-dependent numerical simulations.