Quantum walks on a random environment
Yue Yin, D. E. Katsanos, and S. N. Evangelou

Quantum walks are considered in a one-dimensional random medium characterized by static or dynamic disorder. Quantum interference for static disorder can lead to Anderson localization which completely hinders the quantum walk and it is contrasted with the decoherence effect of dynamic disorder having strength $W$, where a quantum to classical crossover at time $t_{c}\propto W^{-2}$ transforms the quantum walk into an ordinary random walk with diffusive spreading. We demonstrate these localization and decoherence phenomena in quantum carpets of the observed time evolution, we relate our results to previously studied models of decoherence for quantum walks and examine in detail a dimer lattice which corresponds to a single qubit subject to randomness.

© 2008 The American Physical Society.