We generalize the quantum random walk protocol for a particle in a one-dimensional chain, by using several types of biased quantum coins, arranged in aperiodic sequences, in a manner that leads to a rich variety of possible wave-function evolutions. Quasiperiodic sequences, following the Fibonacci prescription, are of particular interest, leading to a sub-ballistic wave-function spreading. In contrast, random sequences lead to diffusive spreading, similar to the classical random walk behavior. We also describe how to experimentally implement these aperiodic sequences.
We generalize the quantum random walk protocol for a particle in a one-dimensional chain, by using several types of biased quantum coins, arranged in aperiodic sequences, in a manner that leads to a rich variety of possible wave-function evolutions. Quasiperiodic sequences, following the Fibonacci prescription, are of particular interest, leading to a sub-ballistic wave-function spreading. In contrast, random sequences lead to diffusive spreading, similar to the classical random walk behavior. We also describe how to experimentally implement these aperiodic sequences.
Quantum walk (QW), the quantum mechanical counterpart of classical random walk, has recently been studied in various fields. The evolution of the discrete time quantum walk can be described as follows: the walker changes its spin state by the coin operator C, then takes one step left or right according to its spin state. For homogeneous quantum walk, the coin operator is independent of time and the standard deviation of the position grows linearly in time. It is quadratically faster than that in the classical random walk. In this work, we numerically study the dynamical behaviors of spreading in a one-dimensional discrete time quasiperiodic quantum walk (DTQQW). The DTQQW is that the coin operator is dependent on time and takes two different coins C() and C() arranged in generalized Fibonacci (GF) sequences. The GF sequences are constructed from A by the recursion relation: AAmBn, BA, for m, n are positive integers. They can be classified into two classes according to the wandering exponent . For 0, they belong to the first class, and for 0, they belong to the second class. For one dimensional system, the behaviors of two classes of GF systems are different either for the electronic spectrum of an electron in quasiperiodic potentials or for the quantum phase transitions of the quasiperiodic spin chains. In this paper, we discuss the cases of two different C operators (C();C()) arranged in GF sequences and find that the spreading behaviors are superdiffusion (the standard deviation of the position ~t; 0:5 1) for the two classes of GF DTQQW. For the second class of GF DTQQW, the exponent values are larger than those of the first class of GF DTQQW in the case of two identical C operators. By exploring the probability distribution in the real space, we find that for the first class of GF DTQQW, the probability distributions are almost the same for different initial states and are similar to the classical Gaussian distribution. For the probability distributions of the second class of GF DTQQW, there are two peaks at the two edges and the height of the two peaks can be different for different initial states. They are similar to the ballistic distribution of the homogeneous quantum walk. Therefore, we conclude that for the first class of GF DTQQW, the spreading behaviors are close to those of the classical random walk ( = 0:5) while for the second class of GF DTQQW, they are close to those of the homogeneous quantum walk ( = 1). This result is quite different from the characteristics of the quantum phase transitions in two classes of GF quasiperiodic quantum spin chains.
We analyze a set of discrete-time quantum walks for which the displacements on a chain follow binary aperiodic jumps according to three paradigmatic sequences: Fibonacci, Thue-Morse, and Rudin-Shapiro. We use a generalized Hadamard coin, C[over ̂]_{H}, as well as a generalized Fourier coin, C[over ̂]_{K}. We verify the QW experiences a slowdown of the wave packet spreading, σ^{2}(t)∼t^{α}, by the aperiodic jumps whose exponent, α, depends on the type of aperiodicity. Additional aperiodicity-induced effects also emerge, namely, (1) while the superdiffusive regime (1<α<2) is predominant, α displays an unusual sensibility with the type of coin operator where the more pronounced differences emerge for the Rudin-Shapiro and random protocols and (2) even though the angle θ of the coin operator is homogeneous in space and time, there is a nonmonotonic dependence of α with θ. Fingerprints of the aperiodicity in the hoppings are also found when distributional measures such as the Shannon and von Neumann entropies, the Inverse Participation Ratio, the Jensen-Shannon dissimilarity, and the kurtosis are computed, which allow assessing informational and delocalization features arising from these protocols and understanding the impact of linear and nonlinear correlations of the jump sequence in a quantum walk as well. Finally, we argue the spin-lattice entanglement is enhanced by aperiodic jumps.
Quantum walks and random walks bear similarities and divergences. One of the most remarkable disparities affects the probability of finding the particle at a given location: typically, almost a flat function in the first case and a bell-shaped one in the second case. Here I show how one can impose any desired stochastic behavior (compatible with the continuity equation for the probability function) on both systems by the appropriate choice of time- and site-dependent coins. This implies, in particular, that one can devise quantum walks that show diffusive spreading without losing coherence as well as random walks that exhibit the characteristic fast propagation of a quantum particle driven by a Hadamard coin.
We investigate the role of different aperiodic sequences in the dynamics of single quantum particles in discrete space and time. For this we consider three aperiodic sequences, namely, the Fibonacci, Thue-Morse, and Rudin-Shapiro sequences, as examples of tilings the diffraction spectra of which have pure point, singular continuous, and absolutely continuous support, respectively. Our interest is to understand how the order, intrinsically introduced by the deterministic rule used to generate the aperiodic sequences, is reflected in the dynamical properties of the quantum system. For this system we consider a single particle undergoing a discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW), where the aperiodic sequences are used to distribute the coin operations at different lattice positions (inhomogeneous DTQW) or by applying the same coin operation at all lattice sites at a given time but choosing different coin operation at each time step according to the chosen aperiodic sequence (time dependent DTQW). We study the energy spectra and the spreading of an initially localized wave packet for different cases, finding that in the case of Fibonacci and Thue-Morse tilings the system is superdiffusive, whereas in the Rudin-Shapiro case it is strongly subdiffusive. Trying to understand this behavior in terms of the energy spectra, we look at the survival amplitude as a function of time. By means of the echo we present strong evidence that, although the three orderings are very different as evidenced by their diffraction spectra, the energy spectra are all singular continuous except for the inhomogeneous DTQW with the Rudin-Shapiro sequence where it is discrete. This is in agreement with the observed strong localization both in real space and in the Hilbert space. Our paper is particularly interesting because quantum walks can be engineered in laboratories by means of ultracold gases or in optical waveguides, and therefore would be a perfect playground to study singular continuous energy spectra in a completely controlled quantum setup.
The dynamical and static disordered quantum walks were extensively studied recently. It is found that, for the dynamical disorder case, the transport behavior of particles is diffusive, and for the static disorder case the transport behavior is localized. In this work, we study the effect of quantum coins on the transport behaviors of the binary disordered quantum walks. We find that once the coins satisfy certain conditions, the sub-ballistic spreading could be found in binary dynamical disorder quantum walks, and the sub-ballistic, diffusive and sub-diffusive spreadings could be found in binary static disorder quantum walks. We obtain the necessary conditions for those abnormal diffusive behaviors.