Continuous time quantum walks (CTQWs) do not necessarily perform better than their classical counterparts, the continuous time random walks (CTRWs). For one special graph, where a recent analysis showed that in a particular direction of propagation the penetration of the graph is faster by CTQWs than by CTRWs, we demonstrate that in another direction of propagation the opposite is true. In this case a CTQW initially localized at one site displays a slow transport. We furthermore show that when the CTQW's initial condition is a totally symmetric superposition of states of equivalent sites, the transport gets to be much more rapid.
Continuous time quantum walks (CTQWs) do not necessarily perform better than their classical counterparts, the continuous time random walks (CTRWs). For one special graph, where a recent analysis showed that in a particular direction of propagation the penetration of the graph is faster by CTQWs than by CTRWs, we demonstrate that in another direction of propagation the opposite is true. In this case a CTQW initially localized at one site displays a slow transport. We furthermore show that when the CTQW's initial condition is a totally symmetric superposition of states of equivalent sites, the transport gets to be much more rapid.
In this paper, we consider continuous-time quantum walks (CTQWs) on a one-dimensional ring lattice of N nodes in which every node is connected to its 2m nearest neighbors ( m on either side). In the framework of the Bloch function ansatz, we calculate the space-time transition probabilities between two nodes of the lattice. We find that the transport of CTQWs between two different nodes is faster than that of the classical continuous-time random walks (CTRWs). The transport speed, which is defined by the ratio of the shortest path length and propagating time, increases with the connectivity parameter m for both CTQWs and CTRWs. For fixed parameter m , the transport of CTRWs gets slower with the increase of the shortest distance while the transport (speed) of CTQWs turns out to be a constant value. In the long-time limit, depending on the network size N and connectivity parameter m , the limiting probability distributions of CTQWs show various patterns. When the network size N is an even number, the probability of being at the original node differs from that of being at the opposite node, which also depends on the precise value of parameter m .
We study the classical and quantum transport processes on some finite networks and model them by continuous-time random walks (CTRW) and continuous-time quantum walks (CTQW), respectively. We calculate the classical and quantum transition probabilities between two nodes of the network. We numerically show that there is a high probability to find the walker at the initial node for CTQWs on the underlying networks due to the interference phenomenon, even for long times. To get global information (independent of the starting node) about the transport efficiency, we average the return probability over all nodes of the network. We apply the decay rate and the asymptotic value of the average of the return probability to evaluate the transport efficiency. Our numerical results prove that the existence of the symmetry in the underlying networks makes quantum transport less efficient than the classical one. In addition, we find that the increasing of the symmetry of these networks decreases the efficiency of quantum transport on them.
Recent findings suggest that processes such as the excitonic energy transfer through the photosynthetic antenna display quantal features, aspects known from the dynamics of charge carriers along polymer backbones. Hence, in modeling energy transfer one has to leave the classical, master-equation-type formalism and advance towards an increasingly quantum-mechanical picture, while still retaining a local description of the complex network of molecules involved in the transport, say through a tight-binding approach. Interestingly, the continuous time random walk (CTRW) picture, widely employed in describing transport in random environments, can be mathematically reformulated to yield a quantum-mechanical Hamiltonian of tight-binding type; the procedure uses the mathematical analogies between time-evolution operators in statistical and in quantum mechanics: The result are continuous-time quantum walks (CTQWs). However, beyond these formal analogies, CTRWs and CTQWs display vastly different physical properties. In particular, here we focus on trapping processes on a ring and show, both analytically and numerically, that distinct configurations of traps (ranging from periodical to random) yield strongly different behaviors for the quantal mean survival probability, while classically (under ordered conditions) we always find an exponential decay at long times.
We show by general arguments that networks whose density of states contains few highly degenerate eigenvalues result in inefficient performances of continuous-time quantum walks (CTQW) over these networks, while systems whose eigenvalues all have the same degeneracy lead to very efficient transport. We exemplify our results by considering CTQW and, for comparison, its classical counterpart, continuous-time random walks, over simple structures, whose eigenvalues and eigenstates can be calculated analytically. Extensions to more complicated, hyper-branched networks are discussed.
Dynamical evolution of systems with sparse Hamiltonians can always be recognized as continuous-time quantum walks (CTQWs) on graphs. In this paper, we analyze the short-time asymptotics of CTQWs. In recent studies, it was shown that for the classical diffusion process the short-time asymptotics of the transition probabilities follows power laws whose exponents are given by the usual combinatorial distances of the nodes. Inspired by this result, we perform a similar analysis for CTQWs in both closed and open systems, including time-dependent couplings. For time-reversal symmetric coherent quantum evolutions, the short-time asymptotics of the transition probabilities is completely determined by the topology of the underlying graph analogously to the classical case, but with a doubled power-law exponent. Moreover, this result is robust against the introduction of on-site potential terms. However, we show that time-reversal symmetry-breaking terms and noncoherent effects can significantly alter the short-time asymptotics. The analytical formulas are checked against numerics, and excellent agreement is found. Furthermore, we discuss in detail the relevance of our results for quantum evolutions on particular network topologies.
Recent findings suggest that processes such as the electronic energy transfer through the photosynthetic antenna display quantal features, aspects known from the dynamics of charge carriers along polymer backbones. Hence, in modeling energy transfer one has to leave the classical, masterequation-type formalism and advance towards an increasingly quantum-mechanical picture, while still retaining a local description of the complex network of molecules involved in the transport, say through a tight-binding approach. Interestingly, the continuous time random walk (CTRW) picture, widely employed in describing transport in random environments, can be mathematically reformulated to yield a quantummechanical Hamiltonian of tight-binding type; the procedure uses the mathematical analogies between time-evolution operators in statistical and in quantum mechanics: The result are continuoustime quantum walks (CTQWs). However, beyond these formal analogies, CTRWs and CTQWs display vastly different physical properties. In particular, here we focus on trapping processes on a ring and show, both analytically and numerically, that distinct configurations of traps (ranging from periodical to random) yield strongly different behaviours for the quantal mean survival probability, while classically (under ordered conditions) we always find an exponential decay at long times.