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Journal of Physics Communications

Non-adiabatic geometric phases in discrete time quantum walks

Yaocheng Yang, Ching-Ray Chang

Published Jan 1, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We present an analytical framework to investigate phase dynamics in discrete-time quantum walks, with a focus on geometric phases in both single- and two-particle systems. Leveraging the Cayley-Hamilton theorem, we construct the evolution operator in momentum space and derive exact closed-form solutions for the full time evolution. This allows us to explicitly extract total, dynamic, and most notably, non-adiabatic geometric phases throughout the walk. In the two-particle case, we further examine how initial entanglement influences the accumulation and interplay of these phases. Our results offer a unified and exact approach to understanding the geometric structure underlying quantum walk dynamics, with particular emphasis on non-adiabatic effects.

DOI
10.1088/2399-6528/ae37c6

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We introduce the idea of a quantum walk with two particles and study it for the case of a discrete time walk on a line. We consider both separable and maximally entangled initial conditions, and show how the entanglement and the relative phase between the states describing the coin degree of freedom of each particle will influence the evolution of the quantum walk. In particular, these factors will have consequences for the distance between the particles and the probability of finding them at a given point, yielding results that cannot be obtained from a separable initial state, be it pure or mixed. Finally, we review briefly proposals for implementations.
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We introduce a self-consistent framework for the analysis of both Abelian and non-Abelian geometric phases associated with open quantum systems, undergoing cyclic adiabatic evolution. We derive a general expression for geometric phases, based on an adiabatic approximation developed within an inherently open-systems approach. This expression provides a natural generalization of the analogous one for closed quantum systems, and we prove that it satisfies all the properties one might expect of a good definition of a geometric phase, including gauge invariance. A striking consequence is the emergence of a finite time interval for the observation of geometric phases. The formalism is illustrated via the canonical example of a spin-1∕21∕21∕2 particle in a time-dependent magnetic field. Remarkably, the geometric phase in this case is immune to dephasing and spontaneous emission in the renormalized Hamiltonian eigenstate basis. This result positively impacts holonomic quantum computing.
We formulate a framework for discrete-time quantum walks, motivated by classical random walks with memory. We present a specific representation of the classical walk with memory 2, on which this is based. The framework has no need for coin spaces, it imposes no constraints on the evolution operator other than unitarity, and is unifying of other approaches. As an example we construct a symmetric discrete-time quantum walk on the semi-infinite binary tree. The generating function of the amplitude at the root is computed in closed form, as a function of time and the initial level nnn in the tree, and we find the asymptotic and a full numerical solution for the amplitude. It exhibits a sharp interference peak and a power-law tail, as opposed to the exponentially decaying tail of a broadly peaked distribution of the classical symmetric random walk on a binary tree. The probability peak is orders of magnitude larger than it is for the classical walk (already at small nnn). The quantum walk shows a polynomial algorithmic speedup in nnn over the classical walk, which we conjecture to be of the order 2/32/32/3, based on strong trends in data.
We study the evolution of quantum correlations in two-particle discrete-time non-unitary quantum walks on a line with gain and loss. The two particles are initially prepared in a maximally entangled state and evolve independently. Using numerically exact calculations of position probability densities, average interparticle distance, entanglement entropy, and concurrence, we examine how dissipation and particle-exchange symmetry of the state (symmetric or antisymmetric) influence the resulting correlations. Notably, we find that the entanglement entropy of the antisymmetric state decays slower than that of the symmetric state at the exceptional point of the model. We also show that, in the antisymmetric state, the concurrence measured on the one-particle reduced density operator is unaffected by dissipation. Furthermore, we discuss how these correlations indicate quantum-to-classical transitions through the appearance of Gaussian position probability densities, sub-linear growth of average interparticle distance after a few steps, and decay of the entanglement entropy. On the other hand, the robustness of the qubit entanglement entropy can differentiate the model's topological phases better than in the one-particle quantum walk scenario.