Simulation of anyonic statistics and its topological path independence using a seven-qubit quantum simulator

Anyons, quasiparticles living in two-dimensional spaces with exotic exchange statistics, can serve as the fundamental units for fault-tolerant quantum computation. However, experimentally demonstrating anyonic statistics is a challenge due to the technical limitations of current experimental platforms. Here, we take a state perpetration approach to mimic anyons in the toric code using a seven-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance quantum simulator. Anyons are created by dynamically preparing the ground and excited states of a seven-qubit planar version of the toric code, and are subsequently braided along two distinct, but topologically equivalent paths. We observe that the phase acquired by the anyons is independent of the path, and coincides with the ideal theoretical predictions when decoherence and implementation errors are taken into account. As the first demonstration of the topological path independence of anyons, our experiment helps to study and exploit the anyonic properties towards the goal of building a topological quantum computer.