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Canadian Journal of Physics

Experimentally implementing the step-dependent discrete-time quantum walk on quantum computers

Luqman Khan, Anwar Zaman, Rashid Ahmad, Sajid Khan

Published Dec 13, 2022• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW) with step-dependent (SD) scattering operator is implemented on quantum computer. The probabilities of different states, with their respective fidelities, are calculated. This is done by generalizing the coin with a rotation gate using the quantum gate model. The CNOT gates in the shift operator are replaced with the alternative to CNOT gates Rx( π). They are applied on a quantum device and a quantum simulator (QS). The fidelities varied around 50% and the probability distribution of SD-DTQW for the angle π/4 spread symmetrically, while the step-independent DTQW (SI-DTQW) tended to peak at one side. The symmetric probability distribution of SD-DTQW can help in better control of the walk on QS. In the case of angle π/2, the SI-DTQW spread equally across the states with four peaks, while the SD-DTQW spread with two peaks to one side.

DOI
10.1139/cjp-2022-0121

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The discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW) with step-dependent (SD) scattering operator is implemented on quantum computer. The probabilities of different states, with their respective fidelities, are calculated. This is done by generalizing the coin with a rotation gate using the quantum gate model. The CNOT gates in the shift operator are replaced with the alternative to CNOT gates Rx( π). They are applied on a quantum device and a quantum simulator (QS). The fidelities varied around 50% and the probability distribution of SD-DTQW for the angle π/4 spread symmetrically, while the step-independent DTQW (SI-DTQW) tended to peak at one side. The symmetric probability distribution of SD-DTQW can help in better control of the walk on QS. In the case of angle π/2, the SI-DTQW spread equally across the states with four peaks, while the SD-DTQW spread with two peaks to one side.
The evolution of a walker in standard "Discrete-time Quantum Walk (DTQW)" is determined by coin and shift unitary operators. The conditional shift operator shifts the position of the walker to right or left by unit step size while the direction of motion is specified by the coin operator. This scenario can be generalized by choosing the step size randomly at each step in some specific interval. For example, the value of the roll of a dice can be used to specify the step size after throwing the coin. Let us call such a quantum walk "Discrete-time Random Step Quantum Walk (DTRSQW)". A completely random probability distribution is obtained whenever the walker follows the DTRSQW. We have also analyzed two more types of quantum walks, the "Discrete-time Un-biased Quantum Walk (DTUBQW)" and the "Discrete-time Biased Quantum Walk (DTBQW)". In the first type, the step size is kept different than unit size but the same for left and right shifts, whereas in the second type left and right shifts can also be different. The probability distribution in DTUBQW is found to follow a certain rule. The standard deviation (σσσ) of DTRSQW is higher than DTQW and hence DTRSQW spreads faster. The σσσ of DTUBQW shows sawtooth behavior with faster spread than DTQW for some specific values of rotation angles and steps.
We report on the possibility of controlling quantum random walks (QWs) with a step-dependent coin (SDC). The coin is characterized by a (single) rotation angle. Considering different rotation angles, one can find diverse probability distributions for this walk including: complete localization, Gaussian and asymmetric likes. In addition, we explore the entropy of walk in two contexts; for probability density distributions over position space and walker's internal degrees of freedom space (coin space). We show that entropy of position space can decrease for a SDC with the step-number, quite in contrast to a walk with step-independent coin (SIC). For entropy of coin space, a damped oscillation is found for walk with SIC while for a SDC case, the behavior of entropy depends on rotation angle. In general, we demonstrate that quantum walks with simple initiatives may exhibit a quite complex and varying behavior if SDCs are applied. This provides the possibility of controlling QW with a SDC.
Quantum walks have proven to be a universal model for quantum computation and to provide speed-up in certain quantum algorithms. The discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW) model, among others, is one of the most suitable candidates for circuit implementation due to its discrete nature. Current implementations, however, are usually characterized by quantum circuits of large size and depth, which leads to a higher computational cost and severely limits the number of time steps that can be reliably implemented on current quantum computers. In this work, we propose an efficient and scalable quantum circuit implementing the DTQW on the 2n-cycle based on the diagonalization of the conditional shift operator. For t time steps of the DTQW, the proposed circuit requires only O(n2+nt) two-qubit gates compared to the O(n2t) of the current most efficient implementation based on quantum Fourier transforms. We test the proposed circuit on an IBM quantum device for a Hadamard DTQW on the 4-cycle and 8-cycle characterized by periodic dynamics and by recurrent generation of maximally entangled single-particle states. Experimental results are meaningful well beyond the regime of few time steps, paving the way for reliable implementation and use on quantum computers.
Quantum walks have wide applications in quantum information, such as universal quantum computation, so it is important to explore properties of quantum walks thoroughly. We propose a novel method to implement discrete-time quantum walks (DTQWs) using only a single qubit, in which both coin and walker are encoded in the two-dimensional state space of a single qubit, operations are realized using single-qubit gates only, and high-dimensional final states of DTQWs can be obtained naturally. With this "one-qubit" approach, DTQW experiments can be realized much more easily, compared with previous methods, in most quantum systems and all properties based on quantum states of DTQWs (such as quantum correlation and coherence) can be investigated. By this approach, we experimentally implement one-particle and two-particle DTQWs with seven steps using single photons. Furthermore, we systematically investigate quantum correlations and coherence (based on the full state of the coin and walker) of the DTQW systems with different initial states of the coin, which have not been obtained and studied in DTQW experiments. As an application, we also study the assisted distillation of quantum coherence using the full state of the two-particle DTQW from the experiment. The maximal increase in distillable coherence for high-dimensional mixed states is investigated for the first time by obtaining its upper and lower bounds. Our work opens a new door to implement DTQW experiments and to better explore properties of quantum walks.
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.
Quantum walk serves as a versatile tool for universal quantum computing and algorithmic research. However, the implementation of discrete-time quantum walks (DTQWs) with superconducting circuits is still constrained by some limitations such as operation precision, circuit depth and connectivity. With improved hardware efficiency by using superconducting qutrits (three-level systems), we experimentally demonstrate a scalable DTQW in a superconducting circuit, observing the ballistic spreading of quantum walk in a qutrit chain. The usage of qutrits in our implementation allows hardware efficiently encoding of the walker position and the coin degree of freedom. By exploiting the flexibility and intrinsic symmetries of qutrit-based DTQWs, we successfully prepare two topological phases in the chain. For the first time, particle-hole-symmetry-protected edge states, bounded at the interface between these two topological phases, are observed in the superconducting platform. Measured parameter dependencies further validate the properties of edge states. The scalability and gate-control compatibility of the demonstrated DTQWs enable a versatile tool for superconducting quantum computing and quantum simulation.