arXiv subjects

Oliver Muelken

Publications and source records attributed to Oliver Muelken.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Quantum transport on small-world networks: A continuous-time quantum walk approach

We consider the quantum mechanical transport of (coherent) excitons on small-world networks (SWN). The SWN are build from a one-dimensional ring of N nodes by randomly introducing B additional bonds between them. The exciton dynamics is modeled by continuous-time quantum walks and we evaluate numerically the ensemble averaged transition probability to reach any node of the network from the initially excited one. For sufficiently large B we find that the quantum mechanical transport through the SWN is, first, very fast, given that the limiting value of the transition probability is reached very quickly; second, that the transport does not lead to equipartition, given that on average the exciton is most likely to be found at the initial node.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Universal Behavior of Quantum Walks with Long-Range Steps

Quantum walks with long-range steps $R^{-γ}$ ($R$ being the distance between sites) on a discrete line behave in similar ways for all $γ\geq2$. This is in contrast to classical random walks, which for $γ>3$ belong to a different universality class than for $γ\leq 3$. We show that the average probabilities to be at the initial site after time $t$ as well as the mean square displacements are of the same functional form for quantum walks with $γ=2$, 4, and with nearest neighbor steps. We interpolate this result to arbitrary $γ\geq2$.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Inefficient quantum walks on networks: the role of the density of states

We show by general arguments that networks whose density of states contains few highly degenerate eigenvalues result in inefficient performances of continuous-time quantum walks (CTQW) over these networks, while systems whose eigenvalues all have the same degeneracy lead to very efficient transport. We exemplify our results by considering CTQW and, for comparison, its classical counterpart, continuous-time random walks, over simple structures, whose eigenvalues and eigenstates can be calculated analytically. Extensions to more complicated, hyper-branched networks are discussed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Survival Probabilities in Coherent Exciton Transfer with Trapping

In the quest for signatures of coherent transport we consider exciton trapping in the continuous-time quantum walk framework. The survival probability displays different decay domains, related to distinct regions of the spectrum of the Hamiltonian. For linear systems and at intermediate times the decay obeys a power-law, in contrast to the corresponding exponential decay found in incoherent continuous-time random walk situations. To differentiate between the coherent and incoherent mechanisms, we present an experimental protocol based on a frozen Rydberg gas structured by optical dipole traps.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Localization of coherent exciton transport in phase space

We study numerically the dynamics of excitons on discrete rings in the presence of static disorder. Based on continuous-time quantum walks we compute the time evolution of the Wigner function (WF) both for pure diagonal (site) disorder, as well as for diagonal and off-diagonal (site and transfer) disorder. In both cases, large disorder leads to localization and destroys the characteristic phase space patterns of the WF found in the absence of disorder.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Coherent dynamics on hierarchical systems

We study the coherent transport modeled by continuous-time quantum walks, focussing on hierarchical structures. For these we use Husimi cacti, lattices dual to the dendrimers. We find that the transport depends strongly on the initial site of the excitation. For systems of sizes $N\le21$, we find that processes which start at central sites are nearly recurrent. Furthermore, we compare the classical limiting probability distribution to the long time average of the quantum mechanical transition probability which shows characteristic patterns. We succeed in finding a good lower bound for the (space) average of the quantum mechanical probability to be still or again at the initial site.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Quantum transport on two-dimensional regular graphs

We study the quantum-mechanical transport on two-dimensional graphs by means of continuous-time quantum walks and analyse the effect of different boundary conditions (BCs). For periodic BCs in both directions, i.e., for tori, the problem can be treated in a large measure analytically. Some of these results carry over to graphs which obey open boundary conditions (OBCs), such as cylinders or rectangles. Under OBCs the long time transition probabilities (LPs) also display asymmetries for certain graphs, as a function of their particular sizes. Interestingly, these effects do not show up in the marginal distributions, obtained by summing the LPs along one direction.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Efficiency of quantum and classical transport on graphs

We propose a measure to quantify the efficiency of classical and quantum mechanical transport processes on graphs. The measure only depends on the density of states (DOS), which contains all the necessary information about the graph. For some given (continuous) DOS, the measure shows a power law behavior, where the exponent for the quantum transport is twice the exponent of its classical counterpart. For small-world networks, however, the measure shows rather a stretched exponential law but still the quantum transport outperforms the classical one. Some finite tree-graphs have a few highly degenerate eigenvalues, such that, on the other hand, on them the classical transport may be more efficient than the quantum one.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Coherent exciton transport in dendrimers and continuous-time quantum walks

We model coherent exciton transport in dendrimers by continuous-time quantum walks (CTQWs). For dendrimers up to the second generation the coherent transport shows perfect recurrences, when the initial excitation starts at the central node. For larger dendrimers, the recurrence ceases to be perfect, a fact which resembles results for discrete quantum carpets. Moreover, depending on the initial excitation site we find that the coherent transport to certain nodes of the dendrimer has a very low probability. When the initial excitation starts from the central node, the problem can be mapped onto a line which simplifies the computational effort. Furthermore, the long time average of the quantum mechanical transition probabilities between pairs of nodes show characteristic patterns and allow to classify the nodes into clusters with identical limiting probabilities. For the (space) average of the quantum mechanical probability to be still or again at the initial site, we obtain, based on the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, a simple lower bound which depends only on the eigenvalue spectrum of the Hamiltonian.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Continuous time quantum walks in phase space

We formulate continuous time quantum walks (CTQW) in a discrete quantum mechanical phase space. We define and calculate the Wigner function (WF) and its marginal distributions for CTQWs on circles of arbitrary length $N$. The WF of the CTQW shows characteristic features in phase space. Revivals of the probability distributions found for continuous and for discrete quantum carpets do manifest themselves as characteristic patterns in phase space.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2005

Asymmetries in symmetric quantum walks on two-dimensional networks

We study numerically the behavior of continuous-time quantum walks over networks which are topologically equivalent to square lattices. On short time scales, when placing the initial excitation at a corner of the network, we observe a fast, directed transport through the network to the opposite corner. This transport is not ballistic in nature, but rather produced by quantum mechanical interference. In the long time limit, certain walks show an asymmetric limiting probability distribution; this feature depends on the starting site and, remarkably, on the precise size of the network. The limiting probability distributions show patterns which are correlated with the initial condition. This might have consequences for the application of continuous time quantum walk algorithms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2005

Spacetime structures of continuous time quantum walks

The propagation by continuous time quantum walks (CTQWs) on one-dimensional lattices shows structures in the transition probabilities between different sites reminiscent of quantum carpets. For a system with periodic boundary conditions, we calculate the transition probabilities for a CTQW by diagonalizing the transfer matrix and by a Bloch function ansatz. Remarkably, the results obtained for the Bloch function ansatz can be related to results from (discrete) generalized coined quantum walks. Furthermore, we show that here the first revival time turns out to be larger than for quantum carpets.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

Thermodynamic formalism for the Lorentz gas with open boundaries in $d$ dimensions

A Lorentz gas may be defined as a system of fixed dispersing scatterers, with a single light particle moving among these and making specular collisions on encounters with the scatterers. For a dilute Lorentz gas with open boundaries in $d$ dimensions we relate the thermodynamic formalism to a random flight problem. Using this representation we analytically calculate the central quantity within this formalism, the topological pressure, as a function of system size and a temperature-like parameter $\ba$. The topological pressure is given as the sum of the topological pressure for the closed system and a diffusion term with a $\ba$-dependent diffusion coefficient. From the topological pressure we obtain the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy on the repeller, the topological entropy, and the partial information dimension.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2004

Slow transport by continuous time quantum walks

Continuous time quantum walks (CTQW) do not necessarily perform better than their classical counterparts, the continuous time random walks (CTRW). For one special graph, where a recent analysis showed that in a particular direction of propagation the penetration of the graph is faster by CTQWs than by CTRWs, we demonstrate that in another direction of propagation the opposite is true; In this case a CTQW initially localized at one site displays a slow transport. We furthermore show that when the CTQW's initial condition is a totally symmetric superposition of states of equivalent sites, the transport gets to be much more rapid.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2003

Thermodynamic formalism for field driven Lorentz gases

We analytically determine the dynamical properties of two dimensional field driven Lorentz gases within the thermodynamic formalism. For dilute gases subjected to an iso-kinetic thermostat, we calculate the topological pressure as a function of a temperature-like parameter $\ba$ up to second order in the strength of the applied field. The Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy and the topological entropy can be extracted from a dynamical entropy defined as a Legendre transform of the topological pressure. Our calculations of the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy exactly agree with previous calculations based on a Lorentz-Boltzmann equation approach. We give analytic results for the topological entropy and calculate the dimension spectrum from the dynamical entropy function.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2001

Deceptive signals of phase transitions in small magnetic clusters

We present an analysis of the thermodynamic properties of small transition metal clusters and show how the commonly used indicators of phase transitions like peaks in the specific heat or magnetic susceptibility can lead to deceptive interpretations of the underlying physics. The analysis of the distribution of zeros of the canonical partition function in the whole complex temperature plane reveals the nature of the transition. We show that signals in the magnetic susceptibility at positive temperatures have their origin at zeros lying at negative temperatures.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2001

The Origins of Phase Transitions in Small Systems

The identification and classification of phases in small systems, e.g. nuclei, social and financial networks, clusters, and biological systems, where the traditional definitions of phase transitions are not applicable, is important to obtain a deeper understanding of the phenomena observed in such systems. Within a simple statistical model we investigate the validity and applicability of different classification schemes for phase transtions in small systems. We show that the whole complex temperature plane contains necessary information in order to give a distinct classification.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2001

Classification of phase transitions of finite Bose-Einstein condensates in power law traps by Fisher zeros

We present a detailed description of a classification scheme for phase transitions in finite systems based on the distribution of Fisher zeros of the canonical partition function in the complex temperature plane. We apply this scheme to finite Bose-systems in power law traps within a semi-analytic approach with a continuous one-particle density of states $Ω(E)\sim E^{d-1}$ for different values of $d$ and to a three dimensional harmonically confined ideal Bose-gas with discrete energy levels. Our results indicate that the order of the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition sensitively depends on the confining potential.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗