Dr. Matej Komelj

Abstract:

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically-protected vortex-like magnetization patterns that can exist under special conditions in noncentrosymmetric structures. They might be applicable as carriers of classical and quantum information [1]. Whereas at the macroscopic level their existence is a finite-temperature phenomenon, theory predicts skyrmions with nanometer length scales at T = 0 [2].

An appropriate model, which can exhibit the respective phase, is a two-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg lattice with the Dzyaloshiskii-Moriya interaction in an external field. A promising way to find the ground and excited states of the corresponding Hamiltonian is to apply a quantum algorithm. In this manner we have mapped the model-parameters phase diagram by performing the calculations with the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) [3]. Although, due to a limited number of the working qubits, the investigated lattices have been too small to host a full skyrmion, the results clearly indicate the relation between the parameters, required for their existence.