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arXiv:1606.04602 · Physical review. E

Using Hilbert transform and classical chains to simulate quantum walks

Daxing Xiong, Felix Thiel, Eli Barkai

Published Aug 8, 2017• 11 citations
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Abstract

We propose a simulation strategy which uses a classical device of linearly coupled chain of springs to simulate quantum dynamics, in particular quantum walks. Through this strategy, we obtain the quantum wave function from the classical evolution. Specially, this goal is achieved with the classical momenta of the particles on the chain and their Hilbert transform, from which we construct the many-body momentum and Hilbert transformed momentum pair correlation functions yielding the real and imaginary parts of the wave function, respectively. With such a wave function, we show that the classical chain's energy and heat spreading densities can be related to the wave function's modulus square. This relation provides a new perspective to understand ballistic heat transport. The results here may give a definite answer to Feynman's idea of using a classical device to simulate quantum physics.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.96.022114

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We propose a simulation strategy which uses a classical device of linearly coupled chain of springs to simulate quantum dynamics, in particular quantum walks. Through this strategy, we obtain the quantum wave function from the classical evolution. Specially, this goal is achieved with the classical momenta of the particles on the chain and their Hilbert transform, from which we construct the many-body momentum and Hilbert transformed momentum pair correlation functions yielding the real and imaginary parts of the wave function, respectively. With such a wave function, we show that the classical chain's energy and heat spreading densities can be related to the wave function's modulus square. This relation provides a new perspective to understand ballistic heat transport. The results here may give a definite answer to Feynman's idea of using a classical device to simulate quantum physics.
We propose a simulation strategy which uses a classical device of linearly coupled chain of springs to simulate quantum dynamics, in particular the quantum walks. Through this strategy, we obtain the quantum wave function from classical evolution. Specially, this goal is achieved with the classical momenta of the particles on the chain and their Hilbert transform, from which we construct the many-body momentum and Hilbert transformed momentum pair correlation functions yielding the real and imaginary parts of the wave function, respectively. With such wave function, we show that the classical chain's energy and heat spreading densities can be related to the wave function's modulus square. This relation indicates a concept of phonon random walks, and thus it provides a new perspective to understand ballistic heat transport. The results here may give a definite answer to Feynman's idea of using a classical device to simulate quantum physics.
Inspired by quantum walks (QW), we propose the concept of classical phonon random walks (PRW). With this we show a correspondence between classical and quantum dynamics. To be specific, we explain how a classical chain of particles with linear interactions can be used to simulate a quantum like wave function ψm(t)\psi_{m}(t)ψm​(t). In particular, the real (imaginary) part of ψm(t)\psi_{m}(t)ψm​(t) is the normalized classical momentum (a new π/2\pi/2π/2 shifted momentum) correlation function of the thermalized many-body system. Energy and heat densities are directly analogous to wave function's modulus squared ∣ψm(t)∣2\left|\psi_{m}(t)\right|^{2}∣ψm​(t)∣2. We also propose a formula predicting the non-universal spreading of these energy packets in terms of the phonon dispersion of the system. Our equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of several linear chains perfectly verify these relations. The extension of the concept to integrable Toda chain is also discussed.
We generalize the quantum random walk protocol for a particle in a one-dimensional chain, by using several types of biased quantum coins, arranged in aperiodic sequences, in a manner that leads to a rich variety of possible wave-function evolutions. Quasiperiodic sequences, following the Fibonacci prescription, are of particular interest, leading to a sub-ballistic wave-function spreading. In contrast, random sequences lead to diffusive spreading, similar to the classical random walk behavior. We also describe how to experimentally implement these aperiodic sequences.
Quantum walks are the quantum mechanical analog to classical random walks. However, due to the wavelike nature of quantum particles, they reveal drastically different dynamics compared to their classical counterpart. These unique properties make quantum walks a new promising platform for quantum algorithms and a powerful tool to understand complex transport phenomena. This thesis presents three experiments specifically designed to send photons on a quantum walk. The experiments are based on a fiber network spreading the photonic wave packets over discrete time bins. With these Quantum Walks in Time we simulate the propagation of quantum particles in various different environments, revealing diverse dynamics such as a fast ballistic spread and an Anderson-like localization effect. Furthermore we use our concept to implement the first quantum walk on a two-dimensional lattice. The underlying topology allows for investigations of the intriguing dynamics of two strongly interacting quantum particles, which reveals unique effects such as the creation of bound states.
We present a comprehensive comparison of spin and energy dynamics in quantum and classical spin models on different geometries, ranging from one-dimensional chains, over quasi-one-dimensional ladders, to two-dimensional square lattices. Focusing on dynamics at formally infinite temperature, we particularly consider the autocorrelation functions of local densities, where the time evolution is governed either by the linear Schr\"odinger equation in the quantum case or the nonlinear Hamiltonian equations of motion in the case of classical mechanics. While, in full generality, a quantitative agreement between quantum and classical dynamics can therefore not be expected, our large-scale numerical results for spin-1/21/21/2 systems with up to N=36N=36N=36 lattice sites in fact defy this expectation. Specifically, we observe a remarkably good agreement for all geometries, which is best for the nonintegrable quantum models in quasi-one or two dimensions, but still satisfactory in the case of integrable chains, at least if transport properties are not dominated by the extensive number of conservation laws. Our findings indicate that classical or semiclassical simulations provide a meaningful strategy to analyze the dynamics of quantum many-body models, even in cases where the spin quantum number S=1/2S=1/2S=1/2 is small and far away from the classical limit $S\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$.
The study of quantum computations that can be simulated efficiently classically is of interest for numerous reasons. On a fundamental level, such an investigation sheds light on the intrinsic computational power that is harnessed in quantum mechanics as compared to classical physics. More practically, understanding which quantum computations do not offer any speed-ups over classical computation provides insights in where (not) to look for novel quantum algorithmic primitives. On the other hand, classical simulation of many-body systems is a challenging task, as the dimension of the Hilbert space scales with the number of particles. Therefore, to understand the properties of the systems, suitable approximation methods need to be employed. The lectures will be divided into two parts. In the first part we discuss classical simulation of quantum computation from several perspectives. We review a number of well-known examples of classically simulatable quantum computations, such as the Gottesman-Knill theorem, matchgate simulation and tensor contraction methods. We further discuss simulation methods that are centred on classical sampling methods (‘weak simulation’), and illustrate how these techniques outperform methods that rely on the exact computation of measurement probabilities (‘strong simulation’). The second part focuses on "Entanglement and variational wavefunctions in quantum many body physics". We review the idea of entanglement in quantum many-body systems and how it helps us to understand the success of numerical renormalization group methods. In particular we will discuss a few variational wave-function based methods for simulating strongly correlated quantum systems, which include (1) matrix product states (2) multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz (3) projected entangled pair states and (4) continuous matrix product states for quantum field theories.