Two-dimensional AKLT states as ground states of gapped Hamiltonians and resource for universal quantum computation

Abstract

Affleck, Kennedy, Lieb, and Tasaki (AKLT) constructed one-dimensional and two-dimensional spin models invariant under spin rotation. These are recognized as paradigmatic examples of symmetry-protected topological phases, including the spin-1 AKLT chain with a provable nonzero spectral gap that strongly supports Haldane’s conjecture on the spectral gap of integer chains. These states were shown to provide universal resource for quantum computation, in the framework of the measurement-based approach, including the spin-3/2 AKLT state on the honeycomb lattice and the spin-2 one on the square lattice, both of which display exponential decay in the correlation functions. However, the nonzero spectral in these 2D models had not been proved analytically for over 30 years, until very recently. I will review briefly our understanding of the quantum computational universality in the AKLT family. Then I will focus on demonstrating the nonzero spectral gap for several 2D AKLT models, including decorated honeycomb and decorated square lattices, and the undecorated degree-3 Archimedean lattices. In brief, we now have universal resource states that are ground states of provable gapped local Hamiltonians. Such a feature may be useful in creating the resource states by cooling the system and might further help the exploration into the quantum computational phases in generalized AKLT-Haldane phases.