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arXiv:2610.07768

Pulsation of quantum walk on finite graph

Taisuke Hosaka, Etsuo Segawa

Published Oct 6, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study discrete-time quantum walks on weighted graphs, where every edge in an edge cut set is assigned a small weight $ε>0$. The parameter $ε$ represents the strength of the connections through the cut edges: as $ε\to 0$, these connections vanish, and the graph decomposes into the connected components obtained by removing the cut edges. We refer to these weighted cut edges as {\it weak edges}. We show that, for sufficiently small $ε$ and on the time scale $t=Θ(ε^{-1/2})$, the finding probabilities between the connected components are asymptotically described by a continuous-time wave equation on a reduced graph, whose vertices represent the connected components and whose edges represent the weak edges connecting them. The wave equation is governed by a symmetric weighted Laplacian determined by the reduced graph and the number of arcs contained in the components. Consequently, finding probabilities of leading-term are independent of the detailed internal structures of the components. We further show that this wave equation has the same form as Newton's equation of motion for a classical spring-mass system on the reduced graph.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2610.07768

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We study discrete-time quantum walks on weighted graphs, where every edge in an edge cut set is assigned a small weight ε>0ε>0ε>0. The parameter εεε represents the strength of the connections through the cut edges: as ε→0ε\to 0ε→0, these connections vanish, and the graph decomposes into the connected components obtained by removing the cut edges. We refer to these weighted cut edges as {\it weak edges}. We show that, for sufficiently small εεε and on the time scale t=Θ(ε−1/2)t=Θ(ε^{-1/2})t=Θ(ε−1/2), the finding probabilities between the connected components are asymptotically described by a continuous-time wave equation on a reduced graph, whose vertices represent the connected components and whose edges represent the weak edges connecting them. The wave equation is governed by a symmetric weighted Laplacian determined by the reduced graph and the number of arcs contained in the components. Consequently, finding probabilities of leading-term are independent of the detailed internal structures of the components. We further show that this wave equation has the same form as Newton's equation of motion for a classical spring-mass system on the reduced graph.
We consider the Grover walk on a finite graph composed of two arbitrary simple graphs connected by one edge, referred to as a bridge. The parameter ε>0ε>0ε>0 assigned at the bridge represents the strength of connectivity: if ε=0ε=0ε=0, then the graph is completely separated. We show that for sufficiently small values of εεε, a phenomenon called pulsation occurs. The pulsation is characterized by the periodic transfer of the quantum walker between the two graphs. An asymptotic expression with respect to small εεε for the probability of finding the walker on either of the two graphs is derived. This expression reveals that the pulsation depends solely on the number of edges in each graph, regardless of their structure. In addition, we obtain that the quantum walker is transferred periodically between the two graphs, with a period of order O(ε−1/2)O(ε^{-1/2})O(ε−1/2). Furthermore, when the number of edges of two graphs is equal, the quantum walker is almost completely transferred.
A quantum particle evolving by Schr\"odinger's equation in discrete space constitutes a continuous-time quantum walk on a graph of vertices and edges. When a vertex is marked by an oracle, the quantum walk effects a quantum search algorithm. Previous investigations of this quantum search algorithm on graphs with cliques have shown that the edges between the cliques can be weighted to enhance the movement of probability between the cliques to reach the marked vertex. In this paper, we explore the most restrictive form of this by analyzing search on a weighted barbell graph that consists of two cliques of the same size joined by a single weighted edge or bridge. This graph is generally irregular, so quantum walks governed by the graph Laplacian or by the adjacency matrix can differ. We show that the Laplacian quantum walk's behavior does not change, no matter the weight of the bridge, and so the single bridge is too restrictive to affect the walk. Similarly, the adjacency quantum walk's behavior is unchanged for most weights, but when the weight equals the size of a clique, the probability does collect at the clique containing the marked vertex, and utilizing a two-stage algorithm with different weights for each stage, the success probability is boosted from 0.5 to 0.996, independent of the size of the barbell graph.
We propose a class of continuous-time quantum walk models on graphs induced by a certain class of discrete-time quantum walk models with a parameter [Formula: see text]. Here the graph treated in this paper can be applied to both finite and infinite cases. The induced continuous-time quantum walk is an extended version of the (free) discrete-Schrödinger equation driven by the normalized Laplacian: the element of the weighted Hermitian takes not only a scalar value but also a matrix value depending on the underlying discrete-time quantum walk. We show that each discrete-time quantum walk with an appropriate setting of the parameter [Formula: see text] in the long time limit identifies with its induced continuous-time quantum walk and gives the running time for the discrete-time to approximate the induced continuous-time quantum walk with a small error [Formula: see text]. We also investigate the detailed spectral information on the induced continuous-time quantum walk.
The continuous-time quantum walk is a particle evolving by Schr\"odinger's equation in discrete space. Encoding the space as a graph of vertices and edges, the Hamiltonian is proportional to the discrete Laplacian. In some physical systems, however, the Hamiltonian is proportional to the adjacency matrix instead. It is well known that these quantum walks are equivalent when the graph is regular, i.e., when each vertex has the same number of neighbors. If the graph is irregular, however, the quantum walks evolve differently. In this paper, we show that for some irregular graphs, if the particle is initially localized at a certain vertex, the probability distributions of the two quantum walks are identical, even though the amplitudes differ. We analytically prove this for a graph with five vertices and a graph with six vertices. By simulating the walks on all 1 018 689 568 simple, connected, irregular graphs with 11 vertices or less, we found 64 graphs with this notion of equivalence. We also give eight infinite families of graphs supporting these equivalent walks.
A single excitation in a quantum spin network described by the Heisenberg model can affect a variety of continuous-time quantum walks on unweighted graphs, including those governed by the discrete Laplacian, adjacency matrix, and signless Laplacian. In this paper, we show that the Heisenberg model can affect these three quantum walks on signed weighted graphs, as well as a generalized Laplacian equal to the discrete Laplacian plus a real-valued multiple of the degree matrix, for which the standard Laplacian, adjacency matrix, and signless Laplacian are special cases. We explore the algorithmic consequence of this generalized Laplacian quantum walk when searching a weighted barbell graph consisting of two equal-sized, unweighted cliques connected by a single signed weighted edge or bridge, with the search oracle constituting an external magnetic field in the spin network. We prove that there are two weights for the bridge (which could both be positive, both negative, or one of each, depending on the multiple of the degree matrix) that allow amplitude to cross from one clique to the other---except for the standard and signless Laplacians that respectively only have one negative or positive weight bridge---boosting the success probability from 0.5 to 0.820 or 0.843 for each weight. Moreover, one of the weights leads to a two-stage algorithm that further boosts the success probability to 0.996.
I obtain the dynamics of the continuous time quantum walk on a d-dimensional lattice, with periodic boundary conditions, as an appropriate limit of the dynamics of the discrete time quantum walk on the same lattice. This extends the main result of [8] which proved this limit for the case of the quantum walk on the infinite line and the quantum cellular automaton proposed in [1]. By highlighting the main features of the limiting procedure, I then extend it to general graphs. For a given discrete time quantum walk on a general graph, I single out the type of continuous dynamics (Hamiltonians) that can be obtained as a limit of the discrete time dynamics. 1 Generalities on quantum walks; continuous and discrete time Consider a graph G: = {V, E} with a set of vertices V of cardinality N and a set of edges E. We assume G to be undirected and without self-loops. In the interval of time ∆t a certain fraction γ∆t of a quantity pj leaves the location of the j-th vertex to move to a neighboring vertex k. The quantity pj, j = 1,..., N, at time t + ∆t is given by 1 pj(t + ∆t) = pj(t) − deg (j)γ∆tpj(t) + ∑ (k,j)∈E γ∆tpk(t). (1) Define ⃗p the N−vector whose components are the pj’s quantities, and L the Laplacian matrix defined by Ljj = − deg (j), Ljk = 1 if (j, k) ∈ E and Ljk = 0 otherwise. L is