English

From classical to quantum walk via erasure of which-way information

Quantum Physics 2018-12-04 v1

Abstract

Decoherence transforms a ballistic quantum walk into a diffusive classical random walk. After each step the environment measures the particle's path and the outside world gets to know the which-way information. The relation between the which-way information and the classicality of the spatial distribution is clearly visible in the multi-coin quantum walk in which the information about particle's path is encoded in the multi-coin degree of freedom. The more information is stored on the coins, the more classical and diffusive the spatial distribution is. Here, we propose a generalized version of the quantum eraser scenario that allows for complex erasure strategies. We show that the which-way information can be erased from the coins and the ballistic features in the spatial probability distribution can be recovered.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1812.00624,
  title  = {From classical to quantum walk via erasure of which-way information},
  author = {Mikolaj Lewandowski and Tomasz Kopyciuk and Pawel Kurzynski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1812.00624},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

7 pages, 3 figures