Realization of symmetry-protected topological phases in a spin-1/2 chain with next-nearest neighbor interactions on a superconducting quantum processor*

The realization of novel phases of matter on quantum simulators is a topic of intense interest. Digital quantum computers offer a route to prepare topological phases with interactions that do not naturally arise in analog quantum simulators. Here, we report the realization of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases of a spin-1/2 Hamiltonian with next-nearest-neighbor hopping on up to 11 qubits on a programmable superconducting quantum processor. We  observe clear signatures of the two distinct SPT phases such as  excitations localized to specific edges and non-zero string order parameters. Our work advances ongoing efforts to realize novel states of matter with exotic interactions on digital near-term quantum computers.