On-demand anyon generation in Kitaev honeycomb non-Abelian spin liquids*

Spin-orbit-coupled Mott insulators known as 'Kitaev materials' provide possible realizations of spin liquids hosting non-Abelian anyons. Motivated by fault-tolerant quantum-computing applications in this setting, we introduce a dynamical anyon-generation protocol that exploits universal edge physics. The setup features holes in the spin liquid, which define energetically cheap locations for non-Abelian anyons, connected by a narrow bridge that can be tuned between spin liquid and trivial phases. We show that modulating the bridge from trivial to spin liquid over intermediatetime scales—quantified by analytics and extensive simulations—deposits non-Abelian anyons into the holes with O(1) probability. The required bridge manipulations are enabled by coupling the Kitaev material to locally tunable ferromagnets that engender the Zeeman field required to stabilize the non-Abelian spin liquid. Combined with existing readout strategies, our protocol reveals a path to topological qubit experiments in Kitaev materials at zero applied magnetic field.