Topological states in qubit arrays induced by density-dependent coupling

Abstract: Topological states of light open exciting possibilities in quantum photonics promising the topological protection of quantum entanglement. Here, we put forward an approach to realize the topological states of photon pairs mediated by the effective density-dependent coupling which is manifested as the dependence of the tunneling amplitude on the number of photons. As a specific platform, we investigate the arrays of nearest-neighbor coupled transmon qubits, where the effective density-dependent coupling is engineered by inserting auxiliary frequency-detuned resonators. We prove the topological origin of the designed model by the direct evaluation of the Zak phase highlighting the feasibility of our proposal for state-of-the-art fabrication technologies.