Figure 4. Robustness to dynamical disorder.
Measurement of the mean chiral displacement of protocol U for a localized input state in the presence of dynamical disorder. For the orange (blue) lines, we choose a mean value of the q-plate optical retardation
=7π/4
, expected to yield a Zak phase of γ/2π=0 (γ/2π=1/2), and we add at each time step a small random retardation
, with Δ=π/10 (a) and π/5 (b). Thin solid lines display the measurements of single realizations, and their average is shown as filled circles (error bars are the s.e.m.). In all plots, empty diamonds represent theoretical simulation calculated for the ideal case Δ=0, and dotted lines the expected result for t→∞.