English

Decoherence and disorder in quantum walks: From ballistic spread to localization

Quantum Physics 2011-11-15 v1

Abstract

We investigate the impact of decoherence and static disorder on the dynamics of quantum particles moving in a periodic lattice. Our experiment relies on the photonic implementation of a one-dimensional quantum walk. The pure quantum evolution is characterized by a ballistic spread of a photon's wave packet along 28 steps. By applying controlled time-dependent operations we simulate three different environmental influences on the system, resulting in a fast ballistic spread, a diffusive classical walk and the first Anderson localization in a discrete quantum walk architecture.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1101.2638,
  title  = {Decoherence and disorder in quantum walks: From ballistic spread to localization},
  author = {A. Schreiber and K. N. Cassemiro and V. Potoček and A. Gábris and I. Jex and Ch. Silberhorn},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1101.2638},
  year   = {2011}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T17:11:39.058Z