Krawtchouk's polynomials occur classically as orthogonal polynomials with respect to the binomial distribution. They may be also expressed in the form of matrices, that emerge as arrays of the values that the polynomials take. The algebraic properties of these matrices provide a very interesting and accessible example in the approach to probability theory known as quantum probability. First it is noted how the Krawtchouk matrices are connected to the classical symmetric Bernoulli random walk. And we show how to derive Krawtchouk matrices in the quantum probability context via tensor powers of the elementary Hadamard matrix. Then connections with the classical situation are shown by calculating expectation values in the quantum case.
We introduce a discrete difference operator D_k to study the one-dimensional quantum random walk (QRW) with the Hadamard coin. Explicit combinatorial expressions are obtained for the probability amplitudes a(n,k) and b(n,k), which encode the final step direction and carry alternating signs that reflect the merging of leftward steps. Removing these signs and the coin-state distinction recovers the classical binomial distribution. The symmetric and antisymmetric combinations
a±b are shown to coincide with diagonal and sub-diagonal entries of the Krawtchouk matrix. Using cross identities among Krawtchouk matrix elements, we prove by induction that the amplitudes satisfy a Parseval identity sum (a^2+b^2)=2^n-1, establishing probability conservation in the Krawtchouk formulation. The operator D_k acts as a discrete Hermite polynomial generator: the ratios h_m = (n choose k)^{-1} D_k^m (n choose k) admit explicit closed forms and converge to Hermite polynomials in the continuous limit. At the discrete level, D_k connects successive Krawtchouk matrices and acts as a coherence generator and a raising operator. The h_m quantify the position-dependent degree of quantum interference on both halves of the distribution, either individually (for x >= 0) or through an inverse-Pascal combination of several h_m (for x < 0), and the ballistic O(n^2) scaling of the variance emerges from the superposition of all excited states. Numerical illustrations for n=6 and n=10 corroborate the analytical results.
A quantum orthogonal polynomial transform (QOPT) is an algorithmic primitive that maps a superposition of standard basis states
∑kαk∣k⟩ coherently to a basis of normalized univariate polynomials orthogonal with respect to a probability measure
μ(x). We provide new discrete and continuous QOPTs for polynomial families in the Askey scheme extending the results for the quantum Hermite transform (Jain et al., STOC'26). Our efficient QOPT algorithms require time
O(polylog(N,1/ε)), where
N is the grid size and
ε is the error, for the discrete Charlier, Meixner and Krawtchouk transforms and for the integer-order Laguerre transform in the continuous setting. The efficient QOPTs are obtained by uncovering the links between Askey scheme polynomials and Gaussian quantum optical gates and developing a compilation framework for
SU(2) and
SU(1,1) optical gates on Cartesian grids extending the framework developed by Iyer et al. (arXiv:2602.15180). Further, we reduce the continuous Jacobi transform to the discrete Hahn transform and provide an
O(Npolylog((N+α+β+1)/ε))-time Hahn transform, a quadratic speedup over the naive implementation. This is based on a more efficient compilation of the Clebsch--Gordan transform for coupling
SU(2) representations with spins
(j1,j2). Finally, we develop a new framework for Laguerre transforms for all orders
ν>0 by fast-forwarding the corresponding radial oscillator using a 3-term chirp decomposition and an efficient algorithm for the Quantum Hankel Transform on a logarithmic grid.
Inspired by the classical spectral analysis of birth-death chains using orthogonal polynomials, we study an analogous set of constructions in the context of open quantum dynamics and related walks. In such setting, block tridiagonal matrices and matrix-valued orthogonal polynomials are the natural objects to be considered. We recall the problems of the existence of a matrix of measures or weight matrix together with concrete calculations of basic statistics of the walk, such as site recurrence and first passage time probabilities, with these notions being defined in terms of a quantum trajectories formalism. The discussion concentrates on the models of quantum Markov chains, due to S. Gudder, and on the particular class of open quantum walks, due to S. Attal et al. The folding trick for birth-death chains on the integers is revisited in this setting together with applications of the matrix-valued Stieltjes transform associated with the measures, thus extending recent results on the subject. Finally, we consider the case of non-symmetric weight matrices and explore some examples.
A new approach to probability theory based on quantum mechanical and Lie algebraic ideas is proposed and developed. The underlying fact is the observation that the coherent states of the Heisenberg-Weyl, su (2), , and algebras in certain symmetric (bosonic) representations give the `probability amplitudes' (or the `square roots') of the well known Poisson, binomial, multinomial, negative binomial and negative multinomial distributions in probability theory. New probability distributions are derived based on coherent states of the classical algebras , and in symmetric representations. These new probability distributions are simple generalization of the multinomial distributions with some added new features reflecting the quantum and Lie algebraic construction. As byproducts, simple proofs and interpretation of addition theorems of Hermite polynomials are obtained from the `coordinate' representation of the (negative) multinomial states. In other words, these addition theorems are higher rank counterparts of the well known generating function of Hermite polynomials, which is essentially the `coordinate' representation of the ordinary (Heisenberg-Weyl) coherent state.
Recently, a new definition for a Wigner distribution function for a one-dimensional finite quantum system, in which the position and momentum operators have a finite (multiplicity-free) spectrum, was developed. This distribution function is defined on discrete phase-space (a finite square grid), and can thus be referred to as the Wigner matrix. In the current paper, we compute this Wigner matrix (or rather, the pre-Wigner matrix, which is related to the Wigner matrix by a simple matrix multiplication) for the case of the
su(2) finite oscillator. The first expression for the matrix elements involves sums over squares of Krawtchouk polynomials, and follows from standard techniques. We also manage to present a second solution, where the matrix elements are evaluations of Dyck polynomials. These Dyck polynomials are defined in terms of the well known Dyck paths. This combinatorial expression of the pre-Wigner matrix elements turns out to be particularly simple.