We study the differences between the process of decoherence induced by chaotic and regular environments. For this we analyze a family of simple models wich contain both regular and chaotic environments. In all cases the system of interest is a "quantum walker", i.e. a quantum particle that can move on a lattice with a finite number of sites. The walker interacts with an environment wich has a D dimensional Hilbert space. The results we obtain suggest that regular and chaotic environments are not distinguishable from each other in a (short) timescale t*, wich scales with the dimensionality of the environment as t*~log(D). Howeber, chaotic environments continue to be effective over exponentially longer timescales while regular environments tend to reach saturation much sooner. We present both numerical and analytical results supporting this conclusion. The family of chaotic evolutions we consider includes the so-called quantum multi-baker-map as a particular case.
We analyze the quantum walk on a cycle using discrete Wigner functions as a way to represent the states and the evolution of the walker. The method provides some insight on the nature of the interference effects that make quantum and classical walks different. We also study the behavior of the system when the quantum coin carried by the walker interacts with an environment. We show that for this system quantum coherence is robust for initially delocalized states of the walker. The use of phase-space representation enables us to develop an intuitive description of the nature of the decoherence …
We address decoherence and classicalization of continuous-time quantum walks (CTQWs) on graphs. In particular, we investigate three different models of decoherence, and employ the quantum-classical (QC) dynamical distance as a figure of merit to assess whether, and to which extent, decoherence classicalizes the CTQW, i.e. turns it into the analogue classical process. We show that the dynamics arising from intrinsic decoherence, i.e. dephasing in the energy basis, do not fully classicalize the walker and partially preserves quantum features. On the other hand, dephasing in the position basis, a…
We show how multi-walker quantum walks can be implemented in a quantum quincunx created via cavity quantum electrodynamics. The implementation of a quantum walk with a multi-walker opens up the interesting possibility to introduce entanglement and more advanced walks. With different coin tosses and initial states the multi-walker quantum walk shows different probability distributions which deviate strongly from the classical random walks with quadratic enhanced spreadings and localization effects. By introducing decoherence, the transition from quantum walks to the classical versions is observ…
We consider two independent quantum walks on separate lines augmented by partial or full swapping of coins after each step. For classical random walks, swapping or not swapping coins makes little difference to the random walk characteristics, but we show that quantum walks with partial swapping of coins have complicated yet elegant inter-walker correlations. Specifically we study the joint position distribution of the reduced two-walker state after tracing out the coins and analyze total, classical and quantum correlations in terms of the mutual information, the quantum mutual information, and…
Quantum random walk in a two-dimensional lattice with randomly distributed traps is investigated. Distributions of quantum walkers are evaluated dynamically for the cases of Hadamard, Fourier, and Grover coins, and quantum to classical transition is examined as a function of the density of the traps. It is shown that traps act as a serious and additional source of quantum decoherence. Furthermore, non-trivial temporal dependence of the standard deviation of the probability distribution of the walker is found when the trapping imperfections are introduced.
In discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW) the walker's coin space entangles with the position space after the very first step of the evolution. This phenomenon may be exploited to obtain the value of the coin parameter $θ$ by performing measurements on the sole position space of the walker. In this paper, we evaluate the ultimate quantum limits to precision for this class of estimation protocols, and use this result to assess measurement schemes having limited access to the position space of the walker in one dimension. We find that the quantum Fisher information (QFI) of the walker's position spac…
We report the position-inhomogeneous quantum walk (IQW) can be utilized to produce the maximal high dimensional entanglement while maintaining the quadratic speedup spread of the wave-function. Our calculations show that the maximal coin-walker entanglement can be generated in any odd steps or asymptotically in even steps, and the nearly maximal entanglement can be obtained in even steps after $2$. We implement the IQW by a stable resource-saving time-bin optical network, in which a polarization Sagnac loop is employed to realize the precisely tunable phase shift. Our approach opens up an effi…
Quantum walks can be used either as tools for quantum algorithm development or as entanglement generators, potentially useful to test quantum hardware. We present a novel algorithm based on a discrete Hadamard quantum walk on a line with one coin and two walkers whose purpose is to generate entanglement between walkers. We provide several classical computer simulations of our quantum algorithm in which we show that, although the asymptotical amount of entanglement generated between walkers does not reach the highest degree of entanglement possible at each step for either coin measurement outco…
Quantum walk research has mainly focused on evolutions due to repeated applications of time-independent unitary coin operators. However, the idea of controlling the single particle evolution using time-dependent unitary coins has still been a subject of multiple studies as it not only hosts interesting possibilities for quantum information processing but also opens a much richer array of phenomena including static and dynamic localizations. So far, such studies have been performed only for single quantum walkers. In case of multi-walker systems, time-dependent coins may generate measurable phe…
We employ the broken-link model to create a barrier with slits in a two-dimensional lattice. The diffraction and interference patterns of the probability distribution of quantum walkers passing through the slits are analyzed. Simulations were performed using the main types of coins, and display diffraction and interference patterns that depend on the choice of coins.
The quantum and classical behaviors of two-dimensional (2D) alternative quantum walk (AQW) in the presence of decoherence have been discussed in detail. For any kinds of decoherence, the analytic expressions for the moments of position distribution of AQW have been obtained. Taking the broken line noise and coin-decoherence as examples of decoherence, we find that when the decoherence only emerges in one direction, the anisotropic position distribution pattern appears, and not all the motions of quantum walkers exhibit the transition from quantum to classical behaviors. The correlations betwee…
Quantum walk (QW), which is considered as the quantum counterpart of the classical random walk (CRW), is actually the quantum extension of CRW from the single-coin interpretation. The sequential unitary evolution engenders correlation between different steps in QW and leads to a ballistic position distribution. In this paper, we propose an alternative quantum extension of CRW from the ensemble interpretation, named quantum random walk (QRW), where the walker has many unrelated coins, modeled as two-level systems, initially prepared in the same state. We calculate the walker's position distribu…
Quantum versions of random walks on the line and cycle show a quadratic improvement in their spreading rate and mixing times respectively. The addition of decoherence to the quantum walk produces a more uniform distribution on the line, and even faster mixing on the cycle by removing the need for time-averaging to obtain a uniform distribution. We calculate numerically the entanglement between the coin and the position of the quantum walker and show that the optimal decoherence rates are such that all the entanglement is just removed by the time the final measurement is made.
In this paper we study decoherence in the quantum walk on the line. We generalize the method of decoherent coin quantum walk, introduced by Brun et al [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 67}, 32304 (2003)]. Our analytical expressions are applicable for all kinds of decoherence. As an example of the coin-position decoherence, we study the broken line quantum walk and compare our results with the numerical one. We also show that our analytical results reduce to the Brun formalism when only the coin is subjected to decoherence.
In this article we investigate the effects of shifting position decoherence, arisen from the tunneling effect in the experimental realization of the quantum walk, on the one-dimensional discreet time quantum walk. We show that in the regime of this type of noise the quantum behavior of the walker does not fade, in contrary to the coin decoherence for which the walker undergos the quantum-to-classical transition even for weak noise. Particularly, we show that the quadratic dependency of the variance on the time and also the coin-position entanglement, i.e. two important quantum aspects of the c…
We study one-dimensional quantum walk with four internal degrees of freedom resulted from two entangled qubits. We will demonstrate that the entanglement between the qubits and its corresponding coin operator enable one to steer the walker's state from a classical to standard quantum-walk behavior, and a novel one. Additionally, we report on self-trapped behavior and perfect transfer with highest velocity for the walker. We also show that symmetry of probability density distribution, the most probable place to find the walker and evolution of the entropy are subject to initial entanglement bet…
A quantum walk on a toral phase space involving translations in position and its conjugate momentum is studied in the simple context of a coined walker in discrete time. The resultant walk, with a family of coins parametrized by an angle is such that its spectrum is exactly solvable with eigenangles for odd parity lattices being equally spaced, a feature that is remarkably independent of the coin. The eigenvectors are naturally specified in terms the $q-$Pochhammer symbol, but can also be written in terms of elementary functions, and their entanglement can be analytically found. While the phas…
For a discrete time quantum walk (QW) on the $N$-cycle, allowing for decoherence on the coin, we derive a number of new results, including an explicit formula for the position probability distribution. For a QW of this type, we show that the mixing behavior tends, in the long-run, to a uniform distribution, regardless of the initial state of the system and irrespective of the parity of the number of nodes $N$. These results confirm the findings of previous authors who arrived at similar conclusions through extensive numerical simulations. In particular, we infer that the mixing time $\bar{M(ε)…
We present a mathematical formalism for the description of unrestricted quantum walks with entangled coins and one walker. The numerical behaviour of such walks is examined when using a Bell state as the initial coin state, two different coin operators, two different shift operators, and one walker. We compare and contrast the performance of these quantum walks with that of a classical random walk consisting of one walker and two maximally correlated coins as well as quantum walks with coins sharing different degrees of entanglement. We illustrate that the behaviour of our walk with entangled …
We investigate the global chirality distribution of the quantum walk on the line when decoherence is introduced either through simultaneous measurements of the chirality and particle position, or as a result of broken links. The first mechanism drives the system towards a classical diffusive behavior. This is used to build new quantum games, similar to the spin-flip game. The second mechanism involves two different possibilities: (a) All the quantum walk links have the same probability of being broken. (b) Only the quantum walk links on a half-line are affected by random breakage. In case (a) …
We propose a variation of the quantum walk on a circle in phase space by conjoining the Hadamard coin flip with simultaneous displacement of the walker's location in phase space and show that this generalization is a proper quantum walk albeit over multiple concentric circles in phase instead of just over one circle. We motivate the conjoining of Hadamard and displacement operations by showing that the Jaynes-Cummings model for coin+walker approximately yields this description in the dispersive limit. The quantum walk signature is evident in the phase distribution of the walker provided that a…
We show that the standard quantum-walk quantum-to-classical transition, characterized by ballistic-to-diffusive spreading of the walker's position, can be controlled by externally modulating the coin state. We illustrate by showing an oscillation between classical diffusive and quantum ballistic spreading using numerical and asymptotically exact closed-form solutions, and we prove that the walker is in a controllable incoherent mixture of classical and quantum walks with a reversible quantum-to-classical transition.
We realize a pair of simultaneous ten-step one-dimensional quantum walks with two walkers sharing coins, which we prove is analogous to the ten-step two-dimensional quantum walk with a single walker holding a four-dimensional coin. Our experiment demonstrates a ten-step quantum walk over an 11x11 two-dimensional lattice with a line defect, thereby realizing a localized walker state.
Consider a discrete-time quantum walk on the $N$-cycle subject to decoherence both on the coin and the position degrees of freedom. By examining the evolution of the density matrix of the system, we derive some new conclusions about the asymptotic behavior of the system. When $N$ is odd, the density matrix of the system tends, in the long run, to the maximally mixed state, independent of the initial state. When $N$ is even, although the behavior of the system is not necessarily asymptotically stationary, in this case too an explicit formulation is obtained of the asymptotic dynamics of the sys…
Consider a discrete-time quantum walk on the $N$-cycle governed by the following condition: at every time step of the walk, the option persists, with probability $p$, of exercising a projective measurement on the coin degree of freedom. For a bipartite quantum system of this kind, we prove that the von Neumann entropy of the total density operator converges to its maximum value. Thus, when influenced by decoherence, the mutual information between the two subsystems, corresponding respectively to the space of the coin and the space of the walker, eventually must diminish to zero. To put it plai…
Coined discrete-time quantum walks are studied using simple deterministic dynamical systems as coins whose classical limit can range from being integrable to chaotic. It is shown that a Loschmidt echo like fidelity plays a central role and when the coin is chaotic this is approximately the characteristic function of a classical random walker. Thus the classical binomial distribution arises as a limit of the quantum walk and the walker exhibits diffusive growth before eventually becoming ballistic. The coin-walker entanglement growth is shown to be logarithmic in time as in the case of many-bod…
We demonstrate a quantum walk with time-dependent coin bias. With this technique we realize an experimental single-photon one-dimensional quantum walk with a linearly-ramped time-dependent coin flip operation and thereby demonstrate two periodic revivals of the walker distribution. In our beam-displacer interferometer, the walk corresponds to movement between discretely separated transverse modes of the field serving as lattice sites, and the time-dependent coin flip is effected by implementing a different angle between the optical axis of half-wave plate and the light propagation at each step…
Quantum walks have emerged as an interesting approach to quantum information processing, exhibiting many unique properties compared to the analogous classical random walk. Here we introduce a model for a discrete-time quantum walk with memory by endowing the walker with multiple recycled coins and using a physical memory function via a history dependent coin flip. By numerical simulation we observe several phenomena. First in one dimension, walkers with memory have persistent quantum ballistic speed up over classical walks just as found in previous studies of multi-coined walks with trivial me…
Quantum entanglement has been used as an experimental tool to control the state of a quantum subsystem by measurements in its twin subsystem by Kwiat and Chiao 21 year ago, already, with entangled subsystems linked by an auxiliary classical coincidence channel. We propose to extend the idea one significant step further consisting essentially in eliminating the coincidence channel in the reminded experiment. The current availability of bright biphoton sources makes such experiments feasible.
We present the first robust implementation of a coined quantum walk over five steps using only passive optical elements. By employing a fiber network loop we keep the amount of required resources constant as the walker's position Hilbert space is increased. We observed a non-Gaussian distribution of the walker's final position, thus characterizing a faster spread of the photon wave-packet in comparison to the classical random walk. The walk is realized for many different coin settings and initial states, which opens the way for the implementation of a quantum walk-based search algorithm.
We address the performance of a coin-biased quantum walk as a generator for non-classical position states of the walker. We exploit a phenomenon of coherent localisation in the position space --- resulting from the choice of small values of the coin parameter and assisted by post-selection --- to engineer large-size coherent superpositions of distinguishable position states of the walker. The protocol that we design appears to be remarkably robust against both the actual value taken by the coin parameter and strong dephasing-like noise acting on the spatial degree of freedom. We finally illust…
In this study we show a way of achieving the reverse evolution of n-dimensional quantum walks by introducing interventions on the coin degree of freedom during the forward progression of the coin-walker system. Only a single intervention is required to reverse a quantum walker on a line to its initial positon and the number of interventions increases with the dimensionality of the walk. We present an analytical treatment to prove these results. This reversion scheme can be used to generate periodic bounded quantum walks and to control the locations where particle can be found with highest prob…
The preparation of initial superposition states of discrete-time quantum walks (DTQWs) are necessary for the study and applications of DTQWs. In linear optics, it is easy to prepare initial superposition states of the coin, which are always encoded by polarization states; while the preparation of superposition states of the walker is challenging. Based on a novel encoding method, we here propose a DTQW protocol in linear optics which enables the preparation of arbitrary initial superposition states of the walker and the coin. With this protocol, we report an experimental demonstration of DTQW …
We consider the stationary state of a quantum walk on the finite path, where the sink and source are set at the left and right boundaries. The quantum coin is uniformly placed at every vertex of the path graph. At every time step, a new quantum walker penetrates into the internal from the left boundary and also some existing quantum walkers in the internal goes out to the sinks located in the left and right boundaries. The square modulus of the stationary state at each vertex is regarded as the comfortability for a quantum walker to this vertex in this paper. We show the weak convergence theor…
Very recently, Lee et al. proposed the first secure quantum teleporation protocol, where quantum information shared by an arbitrary number of senders can be transferred to another arbitrary number of receivers. Here, by introducing quantum walks, a novel secure (n,m) quantum teleportation of shared quantum secret between n senders and $m$ receivers is presented. Firstly, two kinds of (n,2) teleportation schemes are proposed by n-walker quantum walks on the line, the first walker of which is driven by three coins, respectively, based on two kinds of coin operators: the homogeneous coins and the…
We implement the discrete-time quantum walk model using the continuous-time evolution of the Hamiltonian that includes both the shift and the coin generators. Based on the Trotter-Suzuki first-order approximation, we consider an optimization problem in which the Hellinger distance between the walker probability distributions resulted from the evolution of such Hamiltonian and the quantum walk dynamics is minimized. The phase space implementation of the quantum walk is considered where the walker state is encoded on the coherent state of a resonator and the coin on the two-level state of a qubi…
To discuss the quantum to classical transition in quantum cosmology, we study the decoherence factor and the peak of the Wigner function, which respectively represent the degree of decoherence and the degree to which the classical motion of the Universe is defined, in a Robertson-Walker universe model coupled with a scalar field. It is known that the decoherence factor is divergent in some cases. This implies that perfect decoherence occurs, and classical correlation criterion fails. In this paper we discuss the divergence of the decoherence factor in some detail and obtain the constraints for…
We offer theoretical explanations for some recent observations in numerical simulations of quantum random walks (QRW). Specifically, in the case of a QRW on the line with one particle (walker) and two entangled coins, we explain the phenomenon, called "localization", whereby the probability distribution of the walker's position is seen to exhibit a persistent major "spike" (or "peak") at the initial position and two other minor spikes which drift to infinity in either direction. Another interesting finding in connection with QRW's of this sort pertains to the limiting behavior of the position …
We look at two possible routes to classical behavior for the discrete quantum random walk on the line: decoherence in the quantum ``coin'' which drives the walk, or the use of higher-dimensional coins to dilute the effects of interference. We use the position variance as an indicator of classical behavior, and find analytical expressions for this in the long-time limit; we see that the multicoin walk retains the ``quantum'' quadratic growth of the variance except in the limit of a new coin for every step, while the walk with decoherence exhibits ``classical'' linear growth of the variance even…
We implement a quantum walk in phase space with a new mechanism based on the superconducting resonator-assisted double quantum dots. By analyzing the hybrid system, we obtain the necessary factors of realization of a quantum walk in phase space: the walker, coin, coin flipping and conditional phase shift. In order to implement the coin flipping operator, we add a driving field to the resonator. The interaction between the quantum dots and resonator field is used to implement conditional phase shift. Furthermore, we show with different driving fields the quantum walk in phase space exhibits a b…
Quantum walks are known to propagate quadratically faster than their classical counterparts and are used to model dynamics in various quantum systems. The spread of the quantum walk in position space shows anomalous diffusion behavior. By controlling the action of quantum coin operation on the corresponding coin degree of freedom of the walker, one can demonstrate control over the diffusion behavior. In this work, we report different forms of coin operations on quantum walks exhibiting anomalous diffusion behavior. Homogeneous and accelerated quantum walks display superdiffusive behavior, wher…
In this article we show that for any quantum walker with \textit{m}-dimensional coin subspace, we have $m^2\times m^2$ specific constant matrix $\mathcal{C}$ where it completely determines the asymptotic reduced density matrix of the walker. We show that for any initial state with $P_0$ projector, reduced density matrix, can be obtained by $Tr_1\left(P_0\otimes I\;\mathcal{C}\right)$ or equivalently $Tr_2\left(I\otimes P_0\;\mathcal{C}\right)$. It is worth to mention that characteristic matrix $\mathcal{C}$ is independent of the initial state and just depends on coin operator, so by finding th…
The quantum random walk has been much studied recently, largely due to its highly nonclassical behavior. In this paper, we study one possible route to classical behavior for the discrete quantum walk on the line: the presence of decoherence in the quantum ``coin'' which drives the walk. We find exact analytical expressions for the time dependence of the first two moments of position, and show that in the long-time limit the variance grows linearly with time, unlike the unitary walk. We compare this to the results of direct numerical simulation, and see how the form of the position distribution…
We investigate the quantum walk on the line when decoherences are introduced either through simultaneous measurements of the chirality and particle position, or as a result of broken links. Both mechanisms drive the system to a classical diffusive behavior. In the case of measurements, we show that the diffusion coefficient is proportional to the variance of the initially localized quantum random walker just before the first measurement. When links between neighboring sites are randomly broken with probability $p$ per unit time, the evolution becomes decoherent after a characteristic time that…
Quantum walk (QW) is the quantum analog of the random walk. QW is an integral part of the development of numerous quantum algorithms. Hence, an in-depth understanding of QW helps us to grasp the quantum algorithms. We revisit the one-dimensional discrete-time QW and discuss basic steps in detail by incorporating the most general coin operator. We investigate the impact of each parameter of the general coin operator on the probability distribution of the quantum walker. We show that by tuning the parameters of the general coin, one can regulate the probability distribution of the walker. We pro…
A two-particle interferometer is theoretically analyzed, to show how decoherence induced by interactions with the environment affects time correlations, a process we call time-correlation de-coherence. Specifically, on the basis of simple mathematical analysis we show how the interaction between a bipartite entangled system and a photon bath representing the environment can efface the oscillations in the coincidence-detection rate of the interferometer. We discuss the dependence of this kind of decoherence on the photon energy and density.
We introduce a variation of the discrete time quantum walk, the nonreversal quantum walk, which does not step back onto a position which it has just occupied. This allows us to simulate a dimer and we achieve it by introducing a new type of coin operator. The nonrepeating walk, which never moves in the same direction in consecutive time steps, arises by a permutation of this coin operator. We describe the basic properties of both walks and prove that the even-order joint moments of the nonrepeating walker are independent of the initial condition, being determined by five parameters derived fro…
Decoherence phenomenon has been widely studied in different types of quantum walks. In this work we show how to model decoherence inspired by percolation on staggered quantum walks. Two models of unitary noise are described: breaking polygons and breaking vertices. The evolution operators subject to these noises are obtained and the equivalence to the coined quantum walk model is presented. Further, we numerically analyze the effect of these decoherence models on the two-dimensional grid of $4$-cliques. We examine how these perturbations affect the quantum walk based search algorithm in this g…
Rules for quantizing the walker+coin parts of a classical random walk are provided by treating them as interacting quantum systems. A quantum optical random walk (QORW), is introduced by means of a new rule that treats quantum or classical noise affecting the coin's state, as sources of quantization. The long term asymptotic statistics of QORW walker's position that shows enhanced diffusion rates as compared to classical case, is exactly solved. A quantum optical cavity implementation of the walk provides the framework for quantum simulation of its asymptotic statistics. The simulation utilize…
We consider the steepest entropy ascent (SEA) ansatz to describe the non-linear thermodynamic evolution of a quantum system. Recently this principle has been dubbed the fourth law of thermodynamics (Beretta Gian Paolo. 2020 The fourth law of thermodynamics: steepest entropy ascent). A unique global equilibrium state exists in this context, and any other state is driven by the maximum entropy generation principle towards this equilibrium. We study the SEA evolution of a continuous-time quantum walker (CTQW) on a cycle graph with N nodes. SEA solutions are difficult to find analytically. We prov…
We consider the effect of different unitary noise mechanisms on the evolution of a quantum walk (QW) on a linear chain with a generic coin operation: (i) bit-flip channel noise, restricted to the coin subspace of the QW, and (ii) topological noise caused by randomly broken links in the linear chain. Similarities and differences in the respective decoherent dynamics of the walker as a function of the probability per unit time of a decoherent event taking place are discussed.
Quantum walks are dynamic systems with a wide range of applications in quantum computation and quantum simulation of analog systems, therefore it is of common interest to understand what changes from an isolated process to one embedded in an environment. In the present work, we analyze the decoherence in a three-state uni-dimensional quantum walk. The approaches taken into consideration to account for the environment effects are phase and amplitude damping Kraus operators, unitary noise on the coin space, and broken links.
