Braiding light quanta

The possibility that anyons — quantum particles other than fermions or bosons — can emerge in condensed matter systems has motivated generations of physicists. In addition to being of fundamental scientific importance, so-called non-Abelian anyons are particularly sought-after for potential applications to quantum computing. However, experimental evidence of anyons in electronic systems remains inconclusive. We propose to demonstrate non-Abelian braiding by injecting coherent states of light into “topological guided modes” in specially-fabricated photonic waveguide arrays. These modes are photonic analogues of topological zero modes in electronic systems. Light traveling inside spatially well-separated topological guided modes can be braided, leading to the accumulation of non-Abelian phases. We propose an optical interference experiment to probe this non-Abelian braiding directly.