Complementarity and quantum walks

Kendon, Viv and Sanders, Barry C. (2005) Complementarity and quantum walks. Physical Review A, 71 (2). 022307. ISSN 1050-2947 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.71.022307)

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Abstract

We show that quantum walks interpolate between a coherent "wave walk" and a random walk depending on how strongly the walker's coin state is measured; i.e., the quantum walk exhibits the quintessentially quantum property of complementarity, which is manifested as a tradeoff between knowledge of which path the walker takes vs the sharpness of the interference pattern. A physical implementation of a quantum walk (the quantum quincunx) should thus have an identifiable walker and the capacity to demonstrate the interpolation between wave walk and random walk depending on the strength of measurement.

ORCID iDs

Kendon, Viv ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6551-3056 and Sanders, Barry C.;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)