  Chiral edge states are highly sought-after as paradigmatic topological states
relevant to both quantum information processing and dissipationless electron
transport. Using superconducting transmon-based quantum computers, we
demonstrate chiral topological propagation that is induced by suitably designed
interactions, instead of flux or spin-orbit coupling. Also different from
conventional 2D realizations, our effective Chern lattice is implemented on a
much smaller equivalent 1D spin chain, with sequences of entangling gates
encapsulating the required time-reversal breaking. By taking advantage of the
quantum nature of the platform, we circumvented difficulties from the limited
qubit number and gate fidelity in present-day noisy intermediate-scale quantum
(NISQ)-era quantum computers, paving the way for the quantum simulation of more
sophisticated topological states on very rapidly developing quantum hardware.
