In this paper, we consider the continuous limit of a nonlinear quantum walk (NLQW) that incorporates a linear quantum walk as a special case. In particular, we rigorously prove that the walker (solution) of the NLQW on a lattice [Formula: see text] uniformly converges (in Sobolev space [Formula: see text]) to the solution to a nonlinear Dirac equation (NLD) on a fixed time interval as [Formula: see text]. Here, to compare the walker defined on [Formula: see text] and the solution to the NLD defined on [Formula: see text], we use Shannon interpolation.
In this paper, we consider the continuous limit of a nonlinear quantum walk (NLQW) that incorporates a linear quantum walk as a special case. In particular, we rigorously prove that the walker (solution) of the NLQW on a lattice [Formula: see text] uniformly converges (in Sobolev space [Formula: see text]) to the solution to a nonlinear Dirac equation (NLD) on a fixed time interval as [Formula: see text]. Here, to compare the walker defined on [Formula: see text] and the solution to the NLD defined on [Formula: see text], we use Shannon interpolation.
Abstract We present some numerical results for nonlinear quantum walks (NLQWs) studied by the authors analytically (Maeda et al 2018 Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 38 3687–3703; Maeda et al 2018 Quantum Inf. Process. 17 215). It was shown that if the nonlinearity is weak, then the long time behavior of NLQWs are approximated by linear quantum walks. In this paper, we observe the linear decay of NLQWs for range of nonlinearity wider than studied in (Maeda et al 2018 Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 38 3687–3703). In addition, we treat the strong nonlinear regime and show that the solitonic behavior of solutions appears. There are several kinds of soliton solutions and the dynamics becomes complicated. However, we see that there are some special cases so that we can calculate explicit form of solutions. In order to understand the nonlinear dynamics, we systematically study the collision between soliton solutions. We can find a relationship between our model and a nonlinear differential equation.
We introduce coined Nonlinear Quantum Walks (NLQW) on the lattice. The NLQW is based on the walker acquisition of non-linear (probability dependent) phases at each step of the walk. The most striking result is the formation of non-dispersive pulses in the probability distribution (soliton-like structures). These exhibit a variety of dynamical behaviors, including ballistic motion, dynamical localization, non-elastic collisions and chaotic behavior, in the sense that the dynamics is very sensitive to the nonlinearity strength.
The mathematical relationship between the discrete-time and continuous-time quantum walks and the one-dimensional Dirac equation is explored by studying a class of solutions for each, expressed in terms of the generalized, regular, and modified Bessel functions, respectively. Rigorous limits connecting these solutions are established. In addition, new analytical and numerical results are presented for quantum walks and the Dirac equation, including entanglement, relativistic localization and wave packet spreading, and normal and anomalous Zitterbewegung.
The Dirac equation can be modelled as a quantum walk (QW), whose main features are being: discrete in time and space (i.e. a unitary evolution of the wave-function of a particle on a lattice); homogeneous (i.e. translation-invariant and time-independent) and causal (i.e. information propagates at a bounded speed, in a strict sense). This link, which was proposed already by Succi and Benzi, Bialynicki-Birula and Meyer, is shown to hold for Bargmann–Wigner equations and symmetric hyperbolic systems in general. We then analytically prove the convergence of the solution of the QW to the solution of the Cauchy problem for the Dirac equation. We do so by adapting a powerful method from standard numerical analysis, which is of general interest to the field of quantum simulation. At the practical level, this result provides precise error bounds and convergence rates, thereby validating the QW as a quantum simulation scheme. At the theoretical level, it reinforces the status of this QW as a simple, discrete toy model of relativistic particles.
This manuscript gathers and subsumes a long series of works on using QW to simulate transport phenomena. Quantum Walks (QWs) consist of single and isolated quantum systems, evolving in discrete or continuous time steps according to a causal, shift-invariant unitary evolution in discrete space. We start reminding some necessary fundamentals of linear algebra, including the definitions of Hilbert space, tensor state, the definition of linear operator and then we briefly present the principles of quantum mechanics on which this thesis is grounded. After having reviewed the literature of QWs and the main historical approaches to their study, we then move on to consider a new property of QWs, the plasticity. Plastic QWs are those ones admitting both continuous time-discrete space and continuous spacetime time limit. We show that such QWs can be used to quantum simulate a large class of physical phenomena described by transport equations. We investigate this new family of QWs in one and two spatial dimensions, showing that in two dimensions, the PDEs we can simulate are more general and include dispersive terms. We show that the above results do not need to rely on the grid and we prove that such QW-based quantum simulators can be defined on 2-complex simplicia, i.e. triangular lattices. Finally, we extend the above result to any arbitrary triangulation, proving that such QWs coincide in the continuous limit to a transport equation on a general curved surface, including the curved Dirac equation in 2+1 spacetime dimensions.
We analyse a nonlinear QW model which can be experimentally implemented using the components of the electric field on an optical nonlinear Kerr medium, which translates into a rotation in the coin operator, with an angle which depends (in a nonlinear fashion) on the state of the walker. This simple dependence makes it easy to consider the space-time continuum limit of the evolution equation, which takes the form of a nonlinear Dirac equation. The analysis of this continuum limit allows us, under some approximations, to gain some insight into the nature of soliton structures, which is illustrated by our numerical calculations. These solitons are stable structures whose trajectories can be modulated by choosing the appropriate initial conditions. We have also studied the stability of solitons when they are subject to an additional phase that simulates an external electric field, and also explored if they are formed in higher dimensional spaces.