[2607.07801] Topology from Decoherence

Skip to main content

arXiv is now an independent nonprofit!<br>Learn more<br>&times;

Search arXiv

Press Enter to search &middot; Advanced search

-->

Quantum Physics

arXiv:2607.07801 (quant-ph)

[Submitted on 8 Jul 2026]

Title:Topology from Decoherence

Authors:Alexandre Chaduteau, Derek Lee, Frank Schindler, Abhinav Prem<br>View a PDF of the paper titled Topology from Decoherence, by Alexandre Chaduteau and 3 other authors

View PDF

Abstract:Decoherence is conventionally regarded as an obstacle to realizing topological quantum phases. This has motivated extensive efforts to suppress noise in candidate topological materials and devices. Here, we show that decoherence can instead induce topological phenomena. We demonstrate this in a lattice system subject to environment-induced dephasing. The noise-averaged dynamics, governed by an interacting quantum master equation, realize a topological phase characterized by a winding number and the non-Hermitian skin effect. The dynamical consequence is striking: the correlated nature of the stochastic noise yields asymmetric diffusion, whose direction is fixed by the winding number and is reversible only through a topological phase transition. This effect is induced purely by interactions, distinguishing it from previous studies of free, effectively single-particle systems. It also disappears upon postselecting measurement outcomes, confirming that it is a genuinely open-system phenomenon with no effective Hamiltonian description. Remarkably, the model remains analytically tractable. Our results establish correlated quantum noise as a route to topology in open many-body systems, beyond free-particle and non-Hermitian Hamiltonian paradigms.

Subjects:

Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall); Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

Cite as:<br>arXiv:2607.07801 [quant-ph]

(or<br>arXiv:2607.07801v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.07801

Focus to learn more

arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Submission history<br>From: Alexandre Chaduteau [view email]<br>[v1]<br>Wed, 8 Jul 2026 18:00:04 UTC (5,238 KB)

Full-text links:<br>Access Paper:

View a PDF of the paper titled Topology from Decoherence, by Alexandre Chaduteau and 3 other authors<br>View PDF<br>TeX Source

view license

Current browse context:

quant-ph

next >

new<br>recent<br>| 2026-07

Change to browse by:

cond-mat<br>cond-mat.mes-hall<br>cond-mat.str-el

References & Citations

INSPIRE HEP

NASA ADS<br>Google Scholar

Semantic Scholar

export BibTeX citation<br>Loading...

BibTeX formatted citation

&times;

loading...

Data provided by:

Bookmark

Bibliographic Tools

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Bibliographic Explorer Toggle

Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)

Connected Papers Toggle

Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)

Litmaps Toggle

Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)

scite.ai Toggle

scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)

Code, Data, Media

Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article

alphaXiv Toggle

alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)

Links to Code Toggle

CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)

DagsHub Toggle

DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)

GotitPub Toggle

Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)

Huggingface Toggle

Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)

ScienceCast Toggle

ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)

Demos

Demos

Replicate Toggle

Replicate (What is Replicate?)

Spaces Toggle

Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?)

Spaces Toggle

TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?)

Related Papers

Recommenders and Search Tools

Link to Influence Flower

Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)

Core recommender toggle

CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)

Author

Venue

Institution

Topic

About arXivLabs

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs .

Which authors of this paper are endorsers? |<br>Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)

Major funding support from