No Arabic abstract
Quantum walks are versatile simulators of topological phases and phase transitions as observed in condensed matter physics. Here, we utilize a step dependent coin in quantum walks and investigate what topological phases we can simulate with it, their topological invariants, bound states and possibility of phase transitions. These quantum walks simulate non-trivial phases characterized by topological invariants (winding number) $pm 1$ which are similar to the ones observed in topological insulators and polyacetylene. We confirm that the number of phases and their corresponding bound states increase step dependently. In contrast, the size of topological phase and distance between two bound states are decreasing functions of steps resulting into formation of multiple phases as quantum walks proceed (multiphase configuration). We show that, in the bound states, the winding number and group velocity are ill-defined, and the second moment of the probability density distribution in position space undergoes an abrupt change. Therefore, there are phase transitions taking place over the bound states and between two topological phases with different winding numbers.
We report on the possibility of controlling quantum random walks with a step-dependent coin. 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 walkers internal degrees of freedom space (coin space). We show that entropy of position space can decrease for a step-dependent coin with the step-number, quite in contrast to a walk with step-independent coin. For entropy of coin space, a damped oscillation is found for walk with step-independent coin while for a step-dependent coin 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 step-dependent coins are applied. This provides the possibility of controlling quantum random walk with a step-dependent coin.
In this paper we unveil some features of a discrete-time quantum walk on the line whose coin depends on the temporal variable. After considering the most general form of the unitary coin operator, we focus on the role played by the two phase factors that one can incorporate there, and show how both terms influence the evolution of the system. A closer analysis reveals that the probabilistic properties of the motion of the walker remain unaltered when the update rule of these phases is chosen adequately. This invariance is based on a symmetry with consequences not yet fully explored.
We provide an explanation of recent experimental results of Xue et al., where full revivals in a time-dependent quantum walk model with a periodically changing coin are found. Using methods originally developed for electric walks with a space-dependent, rather than a time-dependent coin, we provide a full explanation of the observations of Xue et al. We extend the analysis from periodic time-dependence to quasi-periodic behaviour with periods incommensurate to the step size. Spectral analysis, one of the principal tools for the study of electric walks, fails for time-dependent systems, but we find qualitative propagation behaviour of the time-dependent system in close analogy to the electric case.
The control of quantum walk is made particularly transparent when the initial state is expressed in terms of the eigenstates of the coin operator. We show that the group-velocity density acquires a much simpler form when expressed in this basis. This allows us to obtain a much deeper understanding of the role of the initial coin state on the dynamics of quantum walks and control it. We find that the eigenvectors of the coin result in an extremal regime of a quantum walk. The approach is illustrated on two examples of quantum walks on a line.
Although quantum walks exhibit peculiar properties that distinguish them from random walks, classical behavior can be recovered in the asymptotic limit by destroying the coherence of the pure state associated to the quantum system. Here I show that this is not the only way: I introduce a quantum walk driven by an inhomogeneous, time-dependent coin operator, which mimics the statistical properties of a random walk at all time scales. The quantum particle undergoes unitary evolution and, in fact, the high correlation evidenced by the components of the wave function can be used to revert the outcome of an accidental measurement of its chirality.