arXiv subjects

Giuseppe Di Molfetta

Publications and source records attributed to Giuseppe Di Molfetta.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Multiple transitions between normal and hyperballistic diffusion in quantum walks with time-dependent jumps

We extend to the gamut of functional forms of the probability distribution of the time-dependent step-length a previous model dubbed Elephant Quantum Walk, which considers a uniform distribution and yields hyperballistic dynamics where the variance grows cubicly with time, $σ^2 \propto t^3$, and a Gaussian for the position of the walker. We investigate this proposal both locally and globally with the results showing that the time-dependent interplay between interference, memory and long-range hopping leads to multiple transitions between dynamical regimes, namely ballistic $\rightarrow$ diffusive $\rightarrow$ superdiffusive $\rightarrow$ ballistic $\rightarrow$ hyperballistic for non-hermitian coin whereas the first diffusive regime is quelled for implementations using the Hadamard coin. In addition, we observe a robust asymptotic approach to maximal coin-space entanglement.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

From curved spacetime to spacetime-dependent local unitaries over the honeycomb and triangular Quantum Walks

A discrete-time Quantum Walk (QW) is an operator driving the evolution of a single particle on the lattice, through local unitaries. Some QW admit, as their continuum limit, a well-known equation of Physics. In arXiv:1803.01015 the QW is over the honeycomb and triangular lattices, and simulates the Dirac equation. We apply a spacetime coordinate transformation upon the lattice of this QW, and show that it is equivalent to introducing spacetime-dependent local unitaries --- whilst keeping the lattice fixed. By exploiting this duality between changes in geometry, and changes in local unitaries, we show that the spacetime-dependent QW simulates the Dirac equation in $(2+1)$ - dimensional curved spacetime. Interestingly, the duality crucially relies on the non linear-independence of the three preferred directions of the honeycomb and triangular lattices: The same construction would fail for the square lattice. At the practical level, this result opens the possibility to simulate field theories on curved manifolds, via the quantum walk on different kinds of lattices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Electromagnetic lattice gauge invariance in two-dimensional discrete-time quantum walks

Gauge invariance is one of the more important concepts in physics. We discuss this concept in connection with the unitary evolution of discrete-time quantum walks in one and two spatial dimensions, when they include the interaction with synthetic, external electromagnetic fields. One introduces this interaction as additional phases that play the role of gauge fields. Here, we present a way to incorporate those phases, which differs from previous works. Our proposal allows the discrete derivatives, that appear under a gauge transformation, to treat time and space on the same footing, in a way which is similar to standard lattice gauge theories. By considering two steps of the evolution, we define a density current which is gauge invariant and conserved. In the continuum limit, the dynamics of the particle, under a suitable choice of the parameters, becomes the Dirac equation, and the conserved current satisfies the corresponding conservation equation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Quantum walking in curved spacetime: discrete metric

A discrete-time quantum walk (QW) is essentially a unitary operator driving the evolution of a single particle on the lattice. Some QWs have familiar physics PDEs as their continuum limit. Some slight generalization of them (allowing for prior encoding and larger neighbourhoods) even have the curved spacetime Dirac equation, as their continuum limit. In the $(1+1)-$dimensional massless case, this equation decouples as scalar transport equations with tunable speeds. We characterise and construct all those QWs that lead to scalar transport with tunable speeds. The local coin operator dictates that speed; we provide concrete techniques to tune the speed of propagation, by making use only of a finite number of coin operators---differently from previous models, in which the speed of propagation depends upon a continuous parameter of the quantum coin. The interest of such a discretization is twofold : to allow for easier experimental implementations on the one hand, and to evaluate ways of quantizing the metric field, on the other.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

The Dirac equation as a quantum walk over the honeycomb and triangular lattices

A discrete-time Quantum Walk (QW) is essentially an operator driving the evolution of a single particle on the lattice, through local unitaries. Some QWs admit a continuum limit, leading to well-known physics partial differential equations, such as the Dirac equation. We show that these simulation results need not rely on the grid: the Dirac equation in $(2+1)$--dimensions can also be simulated, through local unitaries, on the honeycomb or the triangular lattice. The former is of interest in the study of graphene-like materials. The latter, we argue, opens the door for a generalization of the Dirac equation to arbitrary discrete surfaces.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

The Elephant Quantum Walk

We explore the impact of long-range memory on the properties of a family of quantum walks in a one-dimensional lattice and discrete time, which can be understood as the quantum version of the classical "Elephant Random Walk" non-Markovian process. This Elephant Quantum Walk is robustly superballistic with the standard deviation showing a constant exponent, $σ\propto t^{3/ 2}$ , whatever the quantum coin operator, on which the diffusion coefficient is dependent. On the one hand, this result indicates that contrarily to the classical case, the degree of superdiffusivity in quantum non- Markovian processes of this kind is mainly ruled by the extension of memory rather than other microscopic parameters that explicitly define the process. On the other hand, these parameters reflect on the diffusion coefficient.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

A gauge-invariant reversible cellular automaton

Gauge-invariance is a fundamental concept in physics---known to provide the mathematical justification for all four fundamental forces. In this paper, we provide discrete counterparts to the main gauge theoretical concepts, directly in terms of Cellular Automata. More precisely, we describe a step-by-step gauging procedure to enforce local symmetries upon a given Cellular Automaton. We apply it to a simple Reversible Cellular Automaton for concreteness. From a Computer Science perspective, discretized gauge theories may be applied to numerical analysis, quantum simulation, fault-tolerant (quantum) computation. From a mathematical perspective, discreteness provides a simple yet rigorous route straight to the core concepts.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2017

Quantum walk hydrodynamics

A simple Discrete-Time Quantum Walk on the line is revisited and given an hydrodynamic interpretation through a novel relativistic generalization of the Madelung transform. Numerical results are presented which show that suitable initial conditions indeed produce hydrodynamical shocks. An analytical computation of the asymptotic quantum shock structure is presented. The non-relativistic limit is explored in the Supplementary Material (SM).

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Mimicking spatial localization in dynamical random environment

We study the role played by noise on the QW introduced in [1], a 1D model that is inspired by a two particle interacting QW. The noise is introduced by a random change in the value of the phase during the evolution, from a constant probability distribution within a given interval. The consequences of introducing such kind of noise depend on both the center value and the width of that interval: a wider interval manifests as a higher level of noise. For some range of parameters, one obtains a quasi-localized state, with a diffusive speed that can be controlled by varying the parameters of the noise. The existence of this (approximately) localized state for such kind of time-dependent noise is, to the best of our knowledge, totally new, since localization (i.e., Anderson localization) is linked in the literature to a spatial random noise.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Encoding curved spacetime into initial condition

We prove that conformal curved spacetime can be encoded into the initial wave function and that curved propagation can be simulated on a two-dimensional regular lattice with a finite set of homogeneous unitary operators. We generalize recent results shown in [1], where the author transforms flat-spacetime in curved static spacetime via non-unitary rotations. In particular, encoding the metric in the initial quantum state via unitary local rotations, can naturally be useful for quantum simulators due to the efficiency and simplicity of the implementation scheme. We validate our model proving that the continuous limit converges to the Dirac Eq. in curved spacetime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Quantum walk on a cylinder

We consider the 2D alternate quantum walk on a cylinder. We concentrate on the study of the motion along the open dimension, in the spirit of looking at the closed coordinate as a small or "hidden" extra dimension. If one starts from localized initial conditions on the lattice, the dynamics of the quantum walk that is obtained after tracing out the small dimension shows the contribution of several components, which can be understood from the study of the dispersion relations for this problem. In fact, these components originate from the contribution of the possible values of the quasi-momentum in the closed dimension. In the continuous space-time limit, the different components manifest as a set of Dirac equations, with each quasi-momentum providing the value of the corresponding mass. We briefly discuss the possible link of these ideas to the simulation of high energy physical theories that include extra dimensions. Finally, entanglement between the coin and spatial degrees of freedom is studied, showing that the entanglement entropy clearly overcomes the value reached with only one spatial dimension.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Quantum Walks as simulators of neutrino oscillations in vacuum and matter

We analyze the simulation of Dirac neutrino oscillations using quantum walks, both in vacuum and in matter. We show that this simulation, in the continuum limit, reproduces a set of coupled Dirac equations that describe neutrino flavor oscillations, and we make use of this to establish a connection with neutrino phenomenology, thus allowing to fix the parameters of the simulation for a given neutrino experiment. We also analyze how matter effects for neutrino propagation can be simulated in the quantum walk. In this way, important features, such as the MSW effect, can be incorporated. Thus, the simulation of neutrino oscillations with the help of quantum walks might be useful to explore these effects in extreme conditions, such as the solar interior or supernovae, in a complementary way to existing experiments.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Quantum walks and non-Abelian discrete gauge theory

A new family of discrete-time quantum walks (DTQWs) on the line with an exact discrete $U(N)$ gauge invariance is introduced. It is shown that the continuous limit of these DTQWs, when it exists, coincides with the dynamics of a Dirac fermion coupled to usual $U(N)$ gauge fields in $2D$ spacetime. A discrete generalization of the usual $U(N)$ curvature is also constructed. An alternate interpretation of these results in terms of superimposed $U(1)$ Maxwell fields and $SU(N)$ gauge fields is discussed in the Appendix. Numerical simulations are also presented, which explore the convergence of the DTQWs towards their continuous limit and which also compare the DTQWs with classical (i.e. non-quantum) motions in classical $SU(2)$ fields. The results presented in this article constitute a first step towards quantum simulations of generic Yang-Mills gauge theories through DTQWs.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Nonlinear Optical Galton Board: thermalization and continuous limit

The nonlinear optical Galton board (NLOGB), a quantum walk like (but nonlinear) discrete time quantum automaton, is shown to admit a complex evolution leading to long time thermalized states. The continuous limit of the Galton Board is derived and shown to be a nonlinear Dirac equation (NLDE). The (Galerkin truncated) NLDE evolution is shown to thermalize toward states qualitatively similar to those of the NLOGB. The NLDE conserved quantities are derived and used to construct a stochastic differential equation converging to grand canonical distributions that are shown to reproduce the (micro canonical) NLDE thermalized statistics. Both the NLOGB and the Galerkin-truncated NLDE are thus demonstrated to exhibit spontaneous thermalization.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Self-truncation and scaling in Euler-Voigt-$α$ and related fluid models

A generalization of the $3D$ Euler-Voigt-$α$ model is obtained by introducing derivatives of arbitrary order $β$ (instead of $2$) in the Helmholtz operator. The $β\to \infty$ limit is shown to correspond to Galerkin truncation of the Euler equation. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the model are performed with resolutions up to $2048^3$ and Taylor-Green initial data. DNS performed at large $β$ demonstrate that this simple classical hydrodynamical model presents a self-truncation behavior, similar to that previously observed for the Gross-Pitaeveskii equation in Krstulovic and Brachet [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 115303 (2011)]. The self-truncation regime of the generalized model is shown to reproduce the behavior of the truncated Euler equation demonstrated in Cichowlas et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 264502 (2005)]. The long-time growth of the self-truncation wavenumber $k_{\rm st}$ appears to be self-similar. Two related $α$-Voigt versions of the EDQNM model and the Leith model are introduced. These simplified theoretical models are shown to reasonably reproduce intermediate time DNS results. The values of the self-similar exponents of these models are found analytically.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2014

Massless Dirac Equation from Fibonacci Discrete-Time Quantum Walk

Discrete-time quantum walks can be regarded as quantum dynamical simulators since they can simulate spatially discretized Schrödinger, massive Dirac, and Klein-Gordon equations. Here, two different types of Fibonacci discrete-time quantum walks are studied analytically. The first is the Fibonacci coin sequence with a generalized Hadamard coin and demonstrates six-step periodic dynamics. The other model is assumed to have three- or six-step periodic dynamics with the Fibonacci sequence. We analytically show that these models have ballistic transportation properties and continuous limits identical to those of the massless Dirac equation with coin basis change.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Quantum Walks in artificial electric and gravitational Fields

The continuous limit of quantum walks (QWs) on the line is revisited through a recently developed method. In all cases but one, the limit coincides with the dynamics of a Dirac fermion coupled to an artificial electric and/or relativistic gravitational field. All results are carefully discussed and illustrated by numerical simulations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Propagation in quantum walks and relativistic diffusions

Propagation in quantum walks is revisited by showing that very general 1D discrete-time quantum walks with time- and space-dependent coefficients can be described, at the continuous limit, by Dirac fermions coupled to electromagnetic fields. Short-time propagation is also established for relativistic diffusions by presenting new numerical simulations of the Relativistic Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Process. A geometrical generalization of Fick's law is also obtained for this process. The results suggest that relativistic diffusions may be realistic models of decohering or random quantum walks. Links with general relativity and geometrical flows are also mentioned.

quant-ph↗