We investigate a discrete-time quantum walk of a three-component quantum particle on a one-dimensional lattice. As coin operators, we employ parameterized rotations generated by the Gell-Mann matrices, which enable systematic tuning of the couplings between the internal components. We analyze how these couplings influence and control the dynamics by systematically exploring the position-space probability distribution across a broad region of the parameter space. To quantify the impact of different inter-component couplings, we further examine the ratio of the mean position to the variance in each half of the lattice. Our results indicates that the system supports a rich variety of transport regimes, ranging from nearly symmetric, rapidly spreading walks to strongly anisotropic dynamics with partial localization. This framework thus provides a new avenue for engineering targeted spreading and trapping behavior in multicomponent discrete-time quantum walks.
We investigate a discrete-time quantum walk of a three-component quantum particle on a one-dimensional lattice. As coin operators, we employ parameterized rotations generated by the Gell-Mann matrices, which enable systematic tuning of the couplings between the internal components. We analyze how these couplings influence and control the dynamics by systematically exploring the position-space probability distribution across a broad region of the parameter space. To quantify the impact of different inter-component couplings, we further examine the ratio of the mean position to the variance in each half of the lattice. Our results indicates that the system supports a rich variety of transport regimes, ranging from nearly symmetric, rapidly spreading walks to strongly anisotropic dynamics with partial localization. This framework thus provides a new avenue for engineering targeted spreading and trapping behavior in multicomponent discrete-time quantum walks.
We investigate the evolution dynamics of inhomogeneous discrete-time one-dimensional quantum walks displaying long-range correlations in both space and time. The associated quantum coin operators of internal states are built to exhibit random inhomogeneity distribution of long-range correlations embedded in the time evolution protocol through a fractional Brownian motion with spectrum following a power-law behavior, S(k)∼1/k^{ν}. From extensive numerical simulations with averages over a large number of independent realizations of the phases of quantum coins, the power-law correlated disorder encoded in the coin phases is shown to give rise to a wide variety of spreading patterns of the qubit states, from localized to subdiffusive, diffusive, and superdiffusive (including ballistic) behavior, depending on the relative strength of the parameters driving the correlation degree. Dispersion control is possible in one-dimensional discrete-time quantum walks by tuning the long-range correlation properties assigned to the inhomogeneous quantum coin operator.
Abstract We investigate the evolution of a discrete-time one-dimensional quantum walk driven by a position-dependent coin. The rotation angle, which depends upon the position of a quantum particle, parameterizes the coin operator. For different values of the rotation angle, we observe that such a coin leads to a variety of probability distributions, e.g. localized, periodic, classical-like, semi-classical-like, and quantum-like. Further, we study the Shannon entropy associated with position and the coin space of a quantum particle, and compare them with the case of the position-independent coin. Our results show that the entropy is smaller for most values of the rotation angle as compared to the case of the position-independent coin. We also study the effect of entanglement on the behavior of probability distribution and Shannon entropy by considering a quantum walk with two identical position-dependent entangled coins. We observe that in general, a wave function becomes more localized as compared to the case of the position-independent coin and hence the corresponding Shannon entropy is lower. Our results show that a position-dependent coin can be used as a controlling tool of quantum walks.
One of the unique features of discrete-time quantum walks is called trapping, meaning the inability of the quantum walker to completely escape from its initial position, although the system is translationally invariant. The effect is dependent on the dimension and the explicit form of the local coin. A four-state discrete-time quantum walk on a square lattice is defined by its unitary coin operator, acting on the four-dimensional coin Hilbert space. The well-known example of the Grover coin leads to a partial trapping, i.e., there exists some escaping initial state for which the probability of staying at the initial position vanishes. On the other hand, some other coins are known to exhibit strong trapping, where such an escaping state does not exist. We present a systematic study of coins leading to trapping, explicitly construct all such coins for discrete-time quantum walks on the two-dimensional square lattice, and classify them according to the structure of the operator and the manifestation of the trapping effect. We distinguish three types of trapping coins exhibiting distinct dynamical properties, as exemplified by the existence or nonexistence of the escaping state and the area covered by the spreading wave packet.
Quantum walk research has mainly focused on evolutions due to repeated applications of time-independent unitary coin operators. However, the idea of controlling the single particle evolution using time-dependent unitary coins has still been a subject of multiple studies as it not only hosts interesting possibilities for quantum information processing but also opens a much richer array of phenomena including static and dynamic localizations. So far, such studies have been performed only for single quantum walkers. In case of multi-walker systems, time-dependent coins may generate measurable phenomena not described by the single-particle model, due to entanglement and interaction among the walkers. In this context, we present here a thorough numerical study of an one dimensional system of two quantum walkers exhibiting rich collective dynamics controlled by simple time-dependent unitary coins proposed in [Phys. Rev. A \textbf{80}, 042332(2009)] and [Phys. Rev. A \textbf{73},062304(2006)]. We study how the interplay of coin time-dependence, simple interaction schemes, entanglement and the relative phase between the coin states of the particles influences the evolution of the quantum walk. The results show that the system offers a rich variety of collective dynamical behavior while being controlled by time dependent coins. In particular, we find and characterize fascinating two-body localization phenomena with tunable quasiperiodic dynamics of correlations and entanglements which are quantities of quantum origin.
Quantum walk (QW) is the quantum analog of the random walk. QW is an integral part of the development of numerous quantum algorithms. Hence, an in-depth understanding of QW helps us to grasp the quantum algorithms. We revisit the one-dimensional discrete-time QW and discuss basic steps in detail by incorporating the most general coin operator, constant in both space and time, and a localized initial state using numerical modeling. We investigate the impact of each parameter of the general coin operator on the probability distribution of the quantum walker. We show that by tuning the parameters of the general coin, one can regulate the probability distribution of the walker. We provide an algorithm for the one-dimensional quantum walk driven by the general coin operator. The study on general coin operators also includes the popular coins – Hadamard, Grover, and Fourier.
This work investigates a discrete-time quantum walk on a one-dimensional lattice driven by three entangled coins, each initialized via a Hadamard operator. The walker moves only when all three coins yield identical outcomes (HHH or TTT), coupling an 8-dimensional coin Hilbert space to the position degree of freedom. We analyze fully separable, fully entangled, and intermediate initial coin states, computing the von Neumann entropy of reduced subsystems to derive the mutual information between coin and position over successive steps. Our results demonstrate that initial tripartite entanglement significantly accelerates the growth of mutual information and enhances coin-position correlations compared to separable initial conditions. Notably, GHZ-type entangled states exhibit non-monotonic short-time dynamics due to interference, yet ultimately yield up to 18% higher mutual information by the tenth step. These findings underscore the role of pre-walk entanglement as a resource for controlling information flow and spatial spreading in quantum-walk-based protocols, with implications for quantum transport, state transfer, and correlation engineering.