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arXiv:0904.1451 · Physical Review Letters

Quantum Walk on a Line for a Trapped Ion

Peng Xue, Barry C. Sanders, Dietrich G. Leibfried

Published Oct 28, 2009• 95 citations
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Abstract

We show that a multistep quantum walk can be realized for a single trapped ion with an interpolation between a quantum and random walk achieved by randomizing the generalized Hadamard coin flip phase. The signature of the quantum walk is manifested not only in the ion's position but also in its phonon number, which makes an ion-trap implementation of the quantum walk feasible.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.103.183602

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We show that a multistep quantum walk can be realized for a single trapped ion with an interpolation between a quantum and random walk achieved by randomizing the generalized Hadamard coin flip phase. The signature of the quantum walk is manifested not only in the ion's position but also in its phonon number, which makes an ion-trap implementation of the quantum walk feasible.
We experimentally demonstrate a quantum walk on a line in phase space using one and two trapped ions. A walk with up to 23 steps is realized by subjecting an ion to state-dependent displacement operations interleaved with quantum coin tossing operations. To analyze the ion's motional state after each step we apply a technique that directly maps the probability density distribution onto the ion's internal state. The measured probability distributions and the position's second moment clearly show the nonclassical character of the quantum walk. To further highlight the difference between the classical (random) and the quantum walk, we demonstrate the reversibility of the latter. Finally, we extend the quantum walk by using two ions, giving the walker the additional possibility to stay instead of taking a step.
We implement the proof of principle for the quantum walk of one ion in a linear ion trap. With a single-step fidelity exceeding 0.99, we perform three steps of an asymmetric walk on the line. We clearly reveal the differences to its classical counterpart if we allow the walker or ion to take all classical paths simultaneously. Quantum interferences enforce asymmetric, nonclassical distributions in the highly entangled degrees of freedom (of coin and position states). We theoretically study and experimentally observe the limitation in the number of steps of our approach that is imposed by motional squeezing. We propose an altered protocol based on methods of impulsive steps to overcome these restrictions, allowing to scale the quantum walk to many, in principal to several hundreds of steps.
Recently, several groups have investigated quantum analogues of random walk algorithms, both on a line and on a circle. It has been found that the quantum versions have markedly different features to the classical versions. Namely, the variance on the line, and the mixing time on the circle increase quadratically faster in the quantum versions as compared to the classical versions. Here, we propose a scheme to implement the quantum random walk on a line and on a circle in an ion trap quantum computer. With current ion trap technology, the number of steps that could be experimentally implemented will be relatively small. However, we show how the enhanced features of these walks could be observed experimentally. In the limit of strong decoherence, the quantum random walk tends to the classical random walk. By measuring the degree to which the walk remains ``quantum,'' this algorithm could serve as an important benchmarking protocol for ion trap quantum computers.
We propose a scheme to implement the simplest and best-studied version of the quantum random walk, the discrete Hadamard walk, in one dimension using a coherent macroscopic sample of ultracold atoms, Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Implementation of the quantum walk using a BEC gives access to the familiar quantum phenomena on a macroscopic scale. This paper uses a rf pulse to implement the Hadamard operation (rotation) and stimulated Raman transition technique as a unitary shift operator. The scheme suggests the implementation of the Hadamard operation and unitary shift operator while the BEC is trapped in a long Rayleigh range optical dipole trap. The Hadamard rotation and a unitary shift operator on a BEC prepared in one of the internal states followed by a bit-flip operation, implements one step of the Hadamard walk. To realize a sizable number of steps, the process is iterated without resorting to intermediate measurement. With current dipole trap technology, it should be possible to implement enough steps to experimentally highlight the discrete quantum random walk using a BEC leading to further exploration of quantum random walks and its applications.
We report the observation of the quantum walks of a phonon, a vibrational quantum, in a trapped-ion crystal. By employing the capability to prepare and observe the localized wave packet of a phonon, the propagation of a single radial local phonon in a four-ion linear crystal is observed with single-site resolution. The results show an agreement with numerical calculations, indicating the predictability and reproducibility of the phonon system. These characteristics may contribute advantageously in the advanced studies of quantum walks, as well as boson sampling and quantum simulation.
Quantum random walks have been much studied recently, largely due to their highly nonclassical behavior. In this paper, we study one possible route to classical behavior for the discrete quantum random walk on the line: the use of multiple quantum ``coins'' (or more generally, coins of higher dimension) in order to diminish the effects of interference between paths. We find solutions to this system in terms of the single-coin random walk, and compare the asymptotic limit of these solutions to numerical simulations. We find exact analytical expressions for the time dependence of the first two moments, and show that in the long-time limit the ``quantum-mechanical'' behavior of the one-coin walk persists, even if each coin is flipped only twice. We further show that this is generic for a very broad class of possible walks, and that this behavior disappears only in the limit of a new coin for every step of the walk.