Reliably transferring a quantum state from one location to another, as well as generating entangled states, are important tasks to achieve in quantum spin systems. The fidelity or probability of state transfer is a number between 0 and 1 that measures the closeness of two quantum states. Fidelity is used to determine the accuracy of quantum state transfer. There are several interesting phenomena of quantum state transfer defined via fidelity: perfect state transfer, pretty good state transfer, and fractional revival. This thesis contains results about the perfect state transfer property of some special classes of graphs, including Hadamard diagonalizable graphs, weighted paths with loops, as well as switched and partially switched hypercubes. A correspondence between the class of graphs that are diagonalizable by a standard Hadamard matrix and the class of cubelike graphs is given. Sensitivity of fidelity to errors when perfect state transfer occurs is analysed: if a system admits perfect state transfer at some time t, bounds on fidelity of state transfer at t+h for very small h are given, as well as bounds on fidelity of a slightly perturbed system at time t. Finally, Laplacian fractional revival on graphs is considered; in particular the thesis contains a characterization of threshold graphs that admit Laplacian fractional revival.
Reliably transferring a quantum state from one location to another, as well as generating entangled states, are important tasks to achieve in quantum spin systems. The fidelity or probability of state transfer is a number between 0 and 1 that measures the closeness of two quantum states. Fidelity is used to determine the accuracy of quantum state transfer. There are several interesting phenomena of quantum state transfer defined via fidelity: perfect state transfer, pretty good state transfer, and fractional revival. This thesis contains results about the perfect state transfer property of some special classes of graphs, including Hadamard diagonalizable graphs, weighted paths with loops, as well as switched and partially switched hypercubes. A correspondence between the class of graphs that are diagonalizable by a standard Hadamard matrix and the class of cubelike graphs is given. Sensitivity of fidelity to errors when perfect state transfer occurs is analysed: if a system admits perfect state transfer at some time t, bounds on fidelity of state transfer at t+h for very small h are given, as well as bounds on fidelity of a slightly perturbed system at time t. Finally, Laplacian fractional revival on graphs is considered; in particular the thesis contains a characterization of threshold graphs that admit Laplacian fractional revival.
Quantum computing is believed to provide many advantages over traditional computing, particularly considering the speed at which computations can be performed. One of the challenges that needs to be resolved in order to construct a quantum computer is the transmission of information from one part of the computer to another. Quantum walks, the quantum analogues of classical random walks, provide one potential method for resolving this challenge. \n \nIn this thesis, we use techniques from algebraic graph theory and number theory to analyze the mathematical model for continuous time quantum walks on graphs. For the continuous time quantum walk model, we define a transition operator, which is a function of a Hamiltonian. We focus on the cases where the adjacency matrix or the Laplacian of a graph act as the Hamiltionian. We mainly consider quantum walks on paths as a model for spin chains, which are the underlying basis of a quantum communication protocol. \n \nFor communication to be efficient, we desire states to be transferred with high fidelity, a measure of the amount of similarity between the transmitted state and the received state. At the maximum fidelity of 1, we say we have achieved perfect state transfer. Examples of perfect state transfer are relatively rare, so the concept of pretty good state transfer was introduced as a natural relaxation, which exists if fidelities arbitrarily close to 1 are obtained. \n \nOur first main result is to characterize pretty good state transfer on paths. Previously, pretty good state transfer on paths was considered mainly for the end vertices, though results for both models indicated that if there was pretty good state transfer between the end vertices, then there was pretty good state transfer between internal vertices equidistant from each end. We complete the characterization by demonstrating, for the adjacency matrix model, a family of paths where pretty good state transfer exists between internal vertices but not between end vertices, and verifying that no other example exists. For the Laplacian model, we show that there are no paths with pretty good state transfer between internal vertices but not between the end vertices. \n \nOur second main result considers initial states involving multiple vertices. Under the adjacency matrix model, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for pretty good state transfer in a particular family of paths in terms of the eigenvalue support of the initial state. We also discuss recent results on fractional revival, which is another form of multiple qubit state transfer.
Quantum spin systems carry information in the form of quantum states, and the propagation of these quantum states is described by a quantum walk. In order to construct an operational quantum computer, the task of reliably transmitting quantum states from one part of a quantum computer to another must be accomplished. Quantum walks are known to be powerful tools in achieving this task. Pure states are quantum states represented by unit complex vectors. In this thesis, we use algebraic and combinatorial techniques to develop the theory of perfect state transfer on pure states in quantum walks, with emphasis on the adjacency and Laplacian matrices as Hamiltonians of a graph representing a spin network. We prove basic results about eigenvalue supports, periodicity, and strong cospectrality on pure states. We investigate a special type of strong cospectrality called m-strong cospectrality, and show that m-strongly cospectral pure states admit desirable quantum state transfer properties. Several characterisations of perfect state transfer are also given, one for general pure states, one for m-strongly pure states, and another one for real pure states. These characterisations give rise to algebraic and analytic properties of pure states admitting perfect state transfer. Moreover, we determine all complete graphs, complete bipartite graphs, cycles, and paths that admit perfect state transfer between m-strongly pure states. Constructions of infinite families of graphs admitting perfect state transfer are also given. We also characterise perfect state transfer between vertex states in joins and blowup graphs. We determine when the join operation preserves or induces perfect state transfer in the resulting graph. We also use blow-up graphs to construct new families of regular graphs with perfect state transfer. We use these two graph operations to demonstrate that graphs with perfect state transfer can be constructed from graphs that do not exhibit such a property. Finally, we investigate perfect state transfer on s-pair states – pure states that represent entanglement between two vertices. We establish combinatorial and spectral properties of s-pair states with perfect state transfer, and characterise its existence in complete graphs, complete bipartite graphs, paths and distance-regular graphs. Further, we construct infinite families of graphs with s-pair state transfer.
Let X be a graph, A its adjacency matrix, and t a non-negative real number. The matrix exp(i t A) determines the evolution in time of a certain quantum system defined on the graph. It represents a continuous-time quantum walk in X. We say that X admits perfect state transfer from a vertex u to a vertex v if there is a time t such that \n| exp(i t A)_(u,v) | = 1. \n \nThe main problem we study in this thesis is that of determining which simple graphs admit perfect state transfer. For some classes of graphs the problem is solved. For example, a path on n vertices admits perfect state transfer if and only if n=2 or n=3. However, the general problem of determining all graphs that admit perfect state transfer is substantially hard. \n \nIn this thesis, we focus on some special cases. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a distance-regular graph to admit perfect state transfer. In particular, we provide a detailed account of which distance-regular graphs of diameter three do so. \n \nA graph is said to be spectrally extremal if the number of distinct eigenvalues is equal to the diameter plus one. Distance-regular graphs are examples of such graphs. We study perfect state transfer in spectrally extremal graphs and explore rich connections to the topic of orthogonal polynomials. We characterize perfect state transfer in such graphs. \n \nWe also provide a general framework in which perfect state transfer in graph products can be studied. We use this to determine when direct products and double covers of graphs admit perfect state transfer. As a consequence, we provide many new examples of simple graphs admitting perfect state transfer. We also provide some advances in the understanding of perfect state transfer in Cayley graphs for the groups (Z_2)^d and Z_n. \n \nFinally, we consider the problem of determining which trees admit perfect state transfer. We show more generally that, except for the path on two vertices, if a connected bipartite graph contains a unique perfect matching, then it cannot admit perfect state transfer. We also consider this problem in the context of another model of quantum walks determined by the matrix exp(i t L), where L is the Laplacian matrix of the graph. In particular, we show that no tree on an odd number of vertices admits perfect state transfer according to this model.
We introduce and study peak state transfer, a notion of high state transfer in qubit networks modeled by continuous-time quantum walks. Unlike perfect or pretty good state transfer, peak state transfer does not require fidelity arbitrarily close to 1, but crucially allows for an explicit determination of the time at which transfer occurs. We provide a spectral characterization of peak state transfer, which allows us to find many examples of peak state transfer, and we also establish tight lower bounds on fidelity and success probability. As a central example, we construct a family of weighted path graphs that admit peak state transfer over arbitrarily long distances with transfer probability approaching π/4≈0.78. These graphs offer exponentially improved sensitivity over known perfect state transfer examples such as the weighted paths related to hypercubes, making them practical candidates for efficient quantum wires.
We initiate the study of pretty good quantum fractional revival in graphs, a generalization of pretty good quantum state transfer in graphs. We give a complete characterization of pretty good fractional revival in a graph in terms of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the adjacency matrix of a graph. This characterization follows from a lemma due to Kronecker on Diophantine approximation, and is similar to the spectral characterization of pretty good state transfer in graphs. Using this, we give complete characterizations of when pretty good fractional revival can occur in paths and in cycles.
Perfect (s,r)-state transfer
Much work has been done in the last two decades on the topic of quantum state transfer in a quantum spin network. One can model such a system of interacting qubits using an undirected graph, and studying vertex-to-vertex dynamics. This setup has recently been relaxed to allow for dynamics between linear combinations of two vertex states, i.e.\ from u=ea+seb to μ=eα+reβ, where r=s is either −1 (which corresponds to pair state transfer) or +1 (which corresponds to plus state transfer), or more recently r=s is taken to be any real number (which corresponds to s-pair state transfer).
Here, we broaden the investigation of s-pair state transfer to \textit{perfect (s,r)-state transfer}, which is perfect state transfer from u=ea+seb to μ=eα+reβ (up to some dilation) where r,s∈C. We identify infinite families of graphs with perfect (s,r)-state transfer and provide characterizations of cases when ∣r∣=∣s∣ and when ∣r∣=∣s∣, showing situations when the degree of entanglement between vertex states is preserved, and when it is not preserved. The latter is particularly important as it represents perfect state transfer from an entangled pair of qubits to another one where the degree of entanglement need not be the same\mdash in fact, it can be set up so as to ``boost'' (increase) entanglement. We provide an algorithm that finds the vector with two nonzero entries that maximizes the fidelity of transfer for a fixed time t starting from a given s-pair state u. Finally, we provide a sensitivity analysis, with respect to readout time errors, of perfect (s,r)-state transfer.