Demonstration of topologically path-independent anyonic braiding in a nine-qubit planar code

Anyons are quasiparticles that obey fractional statistics, producing a phase intermediate to bosons and fermions under particle interchange. Anyons form the basis for topological quantum computation and error correction, where the topological aspect of anyonic braiding is one of the important features that gives rise to fault tolerance. A central model that exhibits anyons is Kitaev’s toric code, where the excited states involve anyons that exhibit topological behavior. Here, we experimentally create the ground state and anyonic excitations of a nine-qubit planar code using eight photons. Stabilizer measurements of the states of the planar code are performed to directly reveal the locations of the anyons in the system. We further perform braiding operations on the anyons, which gives rise to a topologically path-independent phase. Our work provides a platform for simulating the braiding operations with linear optics, opening up the possibility of further exploring the features of anyonic statistics.