Optimal computation with non-unitary quantum walks
Viv Kendon, Olivier Maloyer
备注：
16 pages, 3 eps figures, ELsevier style; v2 clarification added to start of Sec. 4, typos fixed & refs updated; v3 error fixed in qubit counts on p. 9, refs updated, to appear (in 2008) in TCS-A postproceedings volume of CiE 2006
Quantum versions of random walks on the line and the cycle show a quadratic improvement over classical random walks in their spreading rates and mixing times respectively. Non-unitary quantum walks can provide a useful optimisation of these properties, producing a more uniform distribution on the line, and faster mixing times on the cycle. We investigate the interplay between quantum and random dynamics by comparing the resources required, and examining numerically how the level of quantum correlations varies during the walk. We show numerically that the optimal non-unitary quantum walk proceeds such that the quantum correlations are nearly all removed at the point of the final measurement. This requires only O(log T) random bits for a quantum walk of T steps
We present an idea to convert to a unitary quantum walk any open quantum walk which is defined on lattices as well as on finite graphs. This approach generalizes to the domain of open quantum walks (or quantum Markov chains) the framework introduced by Szegedy for quantizing Markov chains. For the unitary quantum walks formulated in this article, we define the probability and the mean probability of finding the walk at a node, then derive the asymptotic mean probability.
A simple coined quantum walk in one dimension can be characterized by a $SU(2)$ operator with three parameters which represents the coin toss. However, different such coin toss operators lead to equivalent dynamics of the quantum walker. In this manuscript we present the unitary equivalence classes of quantum walks and show that all the nonequivalent quantum walks can be distinguished by a single parameter. Moreover, we argue that the electric quantum walks are equivalent to quantum walks with time dependent coin toss operator.
The effect of unitary noise on the discrete one-dimensional quantum walk is studied using computer simulations. For the noiseless quantum walk, starting at the origin (n=0) at time t=0, the position distribution Pt(n) at time t is very different from the Gaussian distribution obtained for the classical random walk. Furthermore, its standard deviation, sigma(t) scales as sigma(t) ~ t, unlike the classical random walk for which sigma(t) ~ sqrt{t}. It is shown that when the quantum walk is exposed to unitary noise, it exhibits a crossover from quantum behavior for short times to classical-like be…
We present analytical treatment of quantum walks on multidimensional hyper-cycle graphs. We derive the analytical expression of the probability distribution for strong and weak decoherence regimes. Upper bound to mixing time is obtained.
Here, a new two-dimensional process, discrete in time and space, that yields the results of both a random walk and a quantum random walk, is introduced. This model describes the population distribution of four coin states |1>,-|1>, |0> -|0> in space without interference, instead of two coin states |1>, |0> .For the case of no boundary conditions, the model is similar to a Markov chain with a stochastic matrix, i.e., it conserves the population distribution of the four coin states, and by using a proper transformation, yield probability distributions of the two quantum states |1>, |0> in space,…
A new approach to quantum walks is presented. Considering a quantum system undergoing some unitary discrete-time evolution in a directed graph G, we think of the vertices of G as sites that are occupied by the quantum system, whose internal state is described by density operators. To formulate the unitary evolution, we define reflections in the tensor product of an internal Hilbert space and a spatial Hilbert space. We then construct unitary channels that govern the evolution of the system in the graph. The discrete dynamics of the system (called quantum walks) is obtained by iterating the uni…
This study investigated the unitary equivalent classes of one-dimensional quantum walks. We determined the unitary equivalent classes of one-dimensional quantum walks, two-phase quantum walks with one defect, complete two-phase quantum walks, one-dimensional quantum walks with one defect and translation-invariant one-dimensional quantum walks. The unitary equivalent classes of one-dimensional quantum walks with initial states were also considered.
This study investigates unitary equivalent classes of one-dimensional quantum walks. We prove that one-dimensional quantum walks are unitary equivalent to quantum walks of Ambainis type and that translation-invariant one-dimensional quantum walks are Szegedy walks. We also present a necessary and sufficient condition for a one-dimensional quantum walk to be a Szegedy walk.
In this work we explain the necessity for consistently labeled rotation maps for efficiently computing coined discrete time quantum walks on regular graphs.
This study investigates the unitary equivalence of split-step quantum walks (SSQW). We consider a new class of quantum walks which includes all SSQWs. We show the explicit form of quantum walks in this class, and clarify their unitary equivalence classes. Unitary equivalence classes of Suzuki's SSQW are also given.
$\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry, namely, a combined parity and time-reversal symmetry can make non-unitary quantum walks exhibit entirely real eigenenergy. However, it is known that the concept of $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry can be generalized and an arbitrary anti-unitary symmetry has a possibility to substitute $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry. The aim of the present work is to seek such non-unitary quantum walks with generalized $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry by focusing on effects of spatially random disorder which breaks $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry. We numerically find non-unitary quantum walks whose quasi-energy is ent…
The optical beam splitter is a widely-used device in photonics-based quantum information processing. Specifically, linear optical networks demand large numbers of beam splitters for unitary matrix realization. This requirement comes from the beam splitter property that a photon cannot go back out of the input ports, which we call "directionally-biased". Because of this property, higher dimensional information processing tasks suffer from rapid device resource growth when beam splitters are used in a feed-forward manner. Directionally-unbiased linear-optical devices have been introduced recentl…
In most widely discussed discrete time quantum walk model, after every unitary shift operator, the particle evolves into the superposition of position space and settles down in one of its basis states, loosing entanglement in the coin space in the new position. The Hadamard operation is applied to let the particle to evolve into the superposition in the coin space and the walk is iterated. We present a model with a additional degree of freedom for the unitary shift operator $U^{\prime}$. The unitary operator with additional degree of freedom will evolve the quantum particle into superposition …
In this paper, we work on a quantum walk whose system is manipulated by a five-diagonal unitary matrix, and present long-time limit distributions. The quantum walk launches off a location and delocalizes in distribution as its system is getting updated. The five-diagonal matrix contains a phase term and the quantum walk becomes a standard coined walk when the phase term is fixed at special values. Or, the phase term gives an effect on the quantum walk. As a result, we will see an explicit form of a long-time limit distribution for a quantum walk driven by the matrix, and thanks to the exact fo…
We propose a scheme to implement the simplest and best-studied version of quantum random walk, the discrete Hadamard walk, in one dimension using coherent macroscopic sample of ultracold atoms, Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Implementation of quantum walk using BEC gives access to the familiar quantum phenomena on a macroscopic scale. This paper uses rf pulse to implement Hadamard operation (rotation) and stimulated Raman transition technique as unitary shift operator. The scheme suggests implementation of Hadamard operation and unitary shift operator while the BEC is trapped in long Rayleigh…
Coined quantum walks may be interpreted as the motion in position space of a quantum particle with a spin degree of freedom; the dynamics are determined by iterating a unitary transformation which is the product of a spin transformation and a translation conditional on the spin state. Coined quantum walks on the d-dimensional lattice can be treated as special cases of coined quantum walks on d-dimensional Euclidean space. We study quantum walks on d-dimensional Euclidean space and prove that the sequence of rescaled probability distributions in position space associated to the unitary evolutio…
Topological matter exhibits exotic properties yet phases characterized by large topological invariants are difficult to implement, despite rapid experimental progress. A promising route toward higher topological invariants is via engineered Floquet systems, particularly in photonics, where flexible control holds the potential of extending the study of conventional topological matter to novel regimes. Here we implement a one-dimensional photonic quantum walk to explore large winding numbers. By introducing partial measurements and hence loss into the system, we detect winding numbers of three a…
The development of quantum walks in the context of quantum computation, as generalisations of random walk techniques, led rapidly to several new quantum algorithms. These all follow unitary quantum evolution, apart from the final measurement. Since logical qubits in a quantum computer must be protected from decoherence by error correction, there is no need to consider decoherence at the level of algorithms. Nonetheless, enlarging the range of quantum dynamics to include non-unitary evolution provides a wider range of possibilities for tuning the properties of quantum walks. For example, small …
A thermodynamic theory is developed to describe the behavior of the entanglement between the coin and position degrees of freedom of the quantum walk on the line. This theory shows that, in spite of the unitary evolution, a steady state is established after a Markovian transient stage. This study suggests that if a quantum dynamics is developed in a composite Hilbert space (i.e. the tensor product of several sub-spaces) then the behavior of an operator that only belongs to one of the sub-spaces may camouflage the unitary character of the global evolution.
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…
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…
The mixing process of discrete-time quantum walks on one-dimensional lattices is revisited in a setting where the walker is coupled to an environment, and the time evolution of the walker and the environment is unitary. The mixing process is found to be incomplete, in the sense that the walker does not approach the maximally mixed state indefinitely, but the distance to the maximally mixed state saturates to some finite value depending on the size of the environment. The quantum speedup of mixing time is investigated numerically as the size of the environment decreases from infinity to a finit…
We calculate the hybrid entanglement entropy between coin and walker degrees of freedom in a non-unitary quantum walk. The model possesses a joint parity and time-reversal symmetry or PT-symmetry and supports topological phases when this symmetry is unbroken by its eigenstates. An asymptotic analysis at long times reveals that the quantum walk can indefinitely sustain hybrid entanglement in the unbroken symmetry phase even when gain and loss mechanisms are present. However, when the gain-loss strength is too large, the PT-symmetry of the model is spontaneously broken and entanglement vanishes.…
We consider discrete-time evolution equations in which the stochastic operator of a classical random walk is replaced by a unitary operator. Such a problem has gained much attention as a framework for coined quantum walks that are essential for attaining the Grover limit for quantum search algorithms in physically realizable, low-dimensional geometries. In particular, we analyze the exact real-space renormalization group (RG) procedure recently introduced to study the scaling of quantum walks on fractal networks. While this procedure, when implemented numerically, was able to provide some deep…
Hitting times for discrete quantum walks on graphs give an average time before the walk reaches an ending condition. To be analogous to the hitting time for a classical walk, the quantum hitting time must involve repeated measurements as well as unitary evolution. We derive an expression for hitting time using superoperators, and numerically evaluate it for the discrete walk on the hypercube. The values found are compared to other analogues of hitting time suggested in earlier work. The dependence of hitting times on the type of unitary ``coin'' is examined, and we give an example of an initia…
We study the problem of site recurrence of discrete time nearest neighbor open quantum random walks (OQWs) on the integer line, proving basic properties and some of its relations with the corresponding problem for unitary (coined) quantum walks (UQWs). For both kinds of walks our discussion concerns two notions of recurrence, one given by a monitoring procedure, another in terms of Pólya numbers, and we study their similarities and differences. In particular, by considering UQWs and OQWs induced by the same pair of matrices, we discuss the fact that recurrence of these walks are related by an …
We investigate the dynamics of discrete-time quantum walk subject to time correlated noise. Noise is described as an unitary coin-type operator before each step, and attention is focused on the noise generated by a Gaussian Ornstein Uhlenbeck process, going beyond the usual telegraph noise, where the random variables are consist of only -1 and 1. Under the first-order approximation of BCH formula, the master equation of noisy discrete-time quantum walk is derived. The dynamics given by the master equation are in good agreement with those given by numerical simulations within a certain period o…
A discrete-time Quantum Walk (QW) is essentially a unitary operator driving the evolution of a single particle on the lattice. Some QWs admit a continuum limit, leading to familiar PDEs (e.g. the Dirac equation). In this paper, we study the continuum limit of a wide class of QWs, and show that it leads to an entire class of PDEs, encompassing the Hamiltonian form of the massive Dirac equation in $(1+1)$ curved spacetime. Therefore a certain QW, which we make explicit, provides us with a unitary discrete toy model of a test particle in curved spacetime, in spite of the fixed background lattice.…
We investigated discrete-time quantum walks with an arbitary unitary coin. Here we discover that the average position $<x> =\max(<x> \sin(α+γ)$, while the initial state is $1/\sqrt{2}(\mid0L>+i\mid0R>)$. We prove the result and get some symmetry properties of quantum walks with a U(2) coin with $\mid0L>$ and $\mid0R>$ as the initial state.
We propose an optical cavity implementation of the two-dimensional coined quantum walk on the line. The implementation makes use of only classical resources, and is tunable in the sense that a large number of different unitary transformations can be implemented by tuning some parameters of the device.
This study investigate the unitary equivalence classes of quantum walks on cycles. We show that unitary equivalence classes of quantum walks on a cycle with $N$ vertices are parameterized by $2N$ real parameters. Moreover, the ranges of two of the parameters are restricted, and the ranges depend on the parity of $N$.
Discrete time (coined) quantum walks are produced by the repeated application of a constant unitary transformation to a quantum system. By recasting these walks into the setting of periodic perturbations to an otherwise freely evolving system we introduce the concept of a stroboscopic quantum walk. Through numerical simulation, we establish the link between families of stroboscopic walks and quantum resonances. These are observed in the nonlinear systems of quantum chaos theory such as the delta-kicked rotator or the delta-kicked accelerator.
We generalize the discrete quantum walk on the line using a time dependent unitary coin operator. We find an analytical relation between the long-time behaviors of the standard deviation and the coin operator. Selecting the coin time sequence allows to obtain a variety of predetermined asymptotic wave-function spreadings: ballistic, sub-ballistic, diffusive, sub-diffusive and localized.
The largest ensemble of qubits which satisfy the general transformation of equal superposition is obtained by different methods, namely, linearity, no-superluminal signalling and non-increase of entanglement under LOCC. We also consider the associated quantum random walk and show that all unitary balanced coins give the same asymmetric spatial probability distribution. It is further illustrated that unbalanced coins, upon appropriate superposition, lead to new unbiased walks which have no classical analogues.
In this paper we consider the one-dimensional quantum random walk X^{varphi} _n at time n starting from initial qubit state varphi determined by 2 times 2 unitary matrix U. We give a combinatorial expression for the characteristic function of X^{varphi}_n. The expression clarifies the dependence of it on components of unitary matrix U and initial qubit state varphi. As a consequence of the above results, we present a new type of limit theorems for the quantum random walk. In contrast with the de Moivre-Laplace limit theorem, our symmetric case implies that X^{varphi}_n /n converges in distribu…
We study the asymptotic position distribution of general quantum walks on a lattice, including walks with a random coin, which is chosen from step to step by a general Markov chain. In the unitary (i.e., non-random) case, we allow any unitary operator, which commutes with translations, and couples only sites at a finite distance from each other. For example, a single step of the walk could be composed of any finite succession of different shift and coin operations in the usual sense, with any lattice dimension and coin dimension. We find ballistic scaling, and establish a direct method for com…
In this Chapter, we present some interesting properties of quantum walks on the line. We concentrate our attention in the emergence of invariance and provide some insights into the ultimate origin of the observed behavior. In the first part of the Chapter, we review the building blocks of the quantum-mechanical version of the standard random walk in one dimension. The most distinctive difference between random and quantum walks is the replacement of the random coin in the former by the action of a unitary operator upon some internal property of the later. We provide explicit expressions for th…
In this paper we consider limit theorems, symmetry of distribution, and absorption problems for two types of one-dimensional quantum random walks determined by 2 times 2 unitary matrices using our PQRS method. The one type was introduced by Gudder in 1988, and the other type was studied intensively by Ambainis et al. in 2001. The difference between both types of quantum random walks is also clarified.
We introduce and analyze a one-dimensional quantum walk with two time-independent rotations on the coin. We study the influence on the property of quantum walk due to the second rotation on the coin. Based on the asymptotic solution in the long time limit, a ballistic behaviour of this walk is observed. This quantum walk retains the quadratic growth of the variance if the combined operator of the coin rotations is unitary. That confirms no localization exhibits in this walk. This result can be extended to the walk with multiple time-independent rotations on the coin.
All existing optical quantum walk approaches are based on the use of beamsplitters and multiple paths to explore the multitude of unitary transformations of quantum amplitudes in a Hilbert space. The beamsplitter is naturally a directionally biased device: the photon cannot travel in reverse direction. This causes rapid increases in optical hardware resources required for complex quantum walk applications, since the number of options for the walking particle grows with each step. Here we present the experimental demonstration of a directionally-unbiased linear-optical multiport, which allows r…
Various quantum-walk based algorithms have been proposed to analyse and rank the centrality of graph vertices. However, issues arise when working with directed graphs --- the resulting non-Hermitian Hamiltonian leads to non-unitary dynamics, and the total probability of the quantum walker is no longer conserved. In this paper, we discuss a method for simulating directed graphs using PT-symmetric quantum walks, allowing probability conserving non-unitary evolution. This method is equivalent to mapping the directed graph to an undirected, yet weighted, complete graph over the same vertex set, an…
We show that probability is locally conserved in discrete time quantum walks, corresponding to a particle evolving in discrete space and time. In particular, for a spatial structure represented by an arbitrary directed graph, and any unitary evolution of a particle which respects that locality structure, we can define probability currents which also respect the locality structure and which yield the correct final probability distribution.
We consider the Szegedy walk on graphs adding infinite length tails to a finite internal graph. We assume that on these tails, the dynamics is given by the free quantum walk. We set the $\ell^\infty$-category initial state so that the internal graph receives time independent input from the tails, say $\boldsymbolα_{in}$, at every time step. We show that the response of the Szegedy walk to the input, which is the output, say $\boldsymbolβ_{out}$, from the internal graph to the tails in the long time limit, is drastically changed depending on the reversibility of the underlying random walk. If t…
The two major discrete time formulations for quantum walks, coined and scattering, are unitarily equivalent for arbitrary position dependent transition amplitudes and any topology (PRA {\bf 80}, 052301 (2009)). Although the proof explicit describes the mapping obtention, its high technicality may hinder relevant physical aspects involved in the equivalence. Discussing concrete examples -- the most general constructions for the line, square and honeycomb lattices -- here we unveil the similarities and differences of these two versions of quantum walks. We moreover show how to derive the dynamic…
The discrete-time quantum walk (QW) has been extensively and intensively investigated for the last decade, whose coin operator is defined by a unitary matrix. We extend the QW to a walk determined by a unitary matrix whose component is quaternion. We call this model quaternionic quantum walk (QQW) and present some properties. This paper is the first step for the study on QQWs.
Recent work on recurrence in quantum walks has provided a representation of Schur functions in terms of unitary operators. We propose a generalization of Schur functions by extending this operator representation to arbitrary operators on Banach spaces. Such generalized Schur functions meet the formal structure of first return generating functions, thus we call them FR-functions. We derive general properties of FR-functions, among them a generalization of the renewal equation already known for random and quantum walks, as well as splitting properties which extend useful factorizations of Schur …
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.
