Controlling quantum random walk with a step-dependent coin

Abstract

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.

Keywords

• quantum random walk
• quantum information processing
• Shannon entropy