Eur. Phys. J. B 77, 479-488 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2010-00267-2

Discrete-time quantum walks on one-dimensional lattices

School of Physical Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215006, P.R. China

Corresponding author: ^a xuxp@iopp.ccnu.edu.cn

Received: 29 January 2010
Revised: 9 July 2010
Published online: 16 September 2010

Abstract

In this paper, we study discrete-time quantum walks on one-dimensional lattices. We find that the coherent dynamics depends on the initial states and coin parameters. For infinite size of lattices, we derive an explicit expression for the return probability, which shows scaling behavior P(0, t) ~ t^-1 and does not depends on the initial states of the walk. In the long-time limit, the probability distribution shows various patterns, depending on the initial states, coin parameters and the lattice size. The time-averaged probability mixes to the limiting probability distribution in linear time, i.e., the mixing time M_ε is a linear function of N (size of the lattices) for large values of thresholds ϵ. Finally, we introduce another kind of quantum walk on infinite or even-numbered size of lattices, and show that by the method of mathematical induction, the walk is equivalent to the traditional quantum walk with symmetrical initial state and coin parameter.