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arXiv:2606.13552

Quantized time in quantum walks under weak rank-K measurements

Klaus Ziegler

quant-phSubmitted Jun 11, 2026• Announced Jun 12, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Measurements can be used to monitor the evolution of quantum systems and may lead to a universally quantized time statistics. It is known that the mean return time is quantized for strong and indirect monitoring through the winding number of the return amplitude in a one-dimensional space. Here we discuss that under multi-channel strong or indirect monitoring, where the latter is achieved through ancilla coupling, the mean return time of a quantum walk in the projected subspace is also quantized. This reflects a universal time quantization for a higher dimensional evolution.

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Measurements can be used to monitor the evolution of quantum systems and may lead to a universally quantized time statistics. It is known that the mean return time is quantized for strong and indirect monitoring through the winding number of the return amplitude in a one-dimensional space. Here we discuss that under multi-channel strong or indirect monitoring, where the latter is achieved through ancilla coupling, the mean return time of a quantum walk in the projected subspace is also quantized. This reflects a universal time quantization for a higher dimensional evolution.
Measurements can be used to monitor the evolution of quantum systems and can give rise to quantized return statistics. It is known that the mean return time is quantized for strong monitoring through the winding number of the monitored quantum state. We discuss that under coherent weak monitoring, implemented via ancilla coupling, the mean return time of a quantum walk obeys a scaling relation with respect to the measurement strength. An analog scaling relation was previously found for random-time monitoring, indicating that weak and random-time monitoring have similar effects. We discuss how weak monitoring via ancilla coupling is linked to the unitary evolution, and how this connection can be controlled by a convergent perturbation theory.
We study the first detected recurrence time problem of continuous-time quantum walks on graphs. While previous works have employed projective measurements to determine the first return time, we implement a protocol based on weak measurements on a dilated system, enabling minimally invasive monitoring throughout the evolution. To achieve this, we implement a weak measurement protocol theoretically and complement it with both numerical simulations and investigations on an IBM quantum computer. Despite the implementation of a generalized measurement, the proposed protocol provides a description purely within the Hilbert space of the quantum system. Our results reveal that for rank-one monitored, pure initial states, the first hitting timescales inversely with the coupling parameter between the ancilla and the quantum system.
Abstract Randomly repeated measurements during the evolution of a closed quantum system create a sequence of probabilities for the first detection of a certain quantum state. The related discrete monitored evolution for the return of the quantum system to its initial state is investigated. We found that the mean number of measurements (MNM) until the first detection is an integer, namely the dimensionality of the accessible Hilbert space. Moreover, the mean first detected return (FDR) time is equal to the average time step between successive measurements times the MNM. Thus, the mean FDR time scales linearly with the dimensionality of the accessible Hilbert space. The main goal of this work is to explain the quantization of the mean return time in terms of a quantized Berry phase.
While the expected time of first visit to a subspace under some quantum evolution is a relevant statistic, it is also important to confront this information with the associated variance, so that one may have a better understanding of how representative such means are. In this work, we study these matters in the context of quantum channels acting on finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, and we provide practical methods for calculating the above data with respect to goal subspaces of interest. By considering an assumption which is strictly weaker than irreducibility, we are also able to consider unitary quantum walks. Our approach is based on the monitored evolution of positive, trace-preserving operators given by quantum Markov chains as described by Gudder. Then, given any channel and some goal subspace of interest, one may induce an absorbing chain in a natural way so that the monitored evolution of the original map can be examined.
The expected return time to the original state is a key concept characterizing systems obeying both classical or quantum dynamics. We consider iterated open quantum dynamical systems in finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, a broad class of systems that includes classical Markov chains and unitary discrete-time quantum walks on networks. Starting from a pure state, the time evolution is induced by repeated applications of a superoperator (quantum channel) in each time step followed by a measurement to detect whether the system has returned to the original state. We prove that if the superoperator is unital in the part of the Hilbert space explored by the system, then the expectation value of the return time is an integer, equal to the dimension of this relevant Hilbert space. We illustrate our results on partially coherent quantum walks on finite graphs. Our work shows that the expected return time is a quantitative measure of the size of the part of the Hilbert space available to the system when the dynamics is started from a certain state.
We investigate a quantum walk on a ring represented by a directed triangle graph with complex edge weights and monitored at a constant rate until the quantum walker is detected. To this end, the first hitting time statistics are recorded using unitary dynamics interspersed stroboscopically by measurements, which are implemented on IBM quantum computers with a midcircuit readout option. Unlike classical hitting times, the statistical aspect of the problem depends on the way we construct the measured path, an effect that we quantify experimentally. First, we experimentally verify the theoretical prediction that the mean return time to a target state is quantized, with abrupt discontinuities found for specific sampling times and other control parameters, which has a well-known topological interpretation. Second, depending on the initial state, system parameters, and measurement protocol, the detection probability can be less than one or even zero, which is related to dark-state physics. Both return-time quantization and the appearance of the dark states are related to degeneracies in the eigenvalues of the unitary time evolution operator. We conclude that, for the IBM quantum computer under study, the first hitting times of monitored quantum walks are resilient to noise. However, a finite number of measurements leads to broadening effects, which modify the topological quantization and chiral effects of the asymptotic theory with an infinite number of measurements.