We manipulate a Bose-Einstein condensate using the optical trap created by the diffraction of a laser beam on a fast ferro-electric liquid crystal spatial light modulator. The modulator acts as a phase grating which can generate arbitrary diffraction patterns and be rapidly reconfigured at rates up to 1 kHz to create smooth, time-varying optical potentials. The flexibility of the device is demonstrated with our experimental results for splitting a Bose-Einstein condensate and independently transporting the separate parts of the atomic cloud.

Quantum walk models have been used as an algorithmic tool for quantum computation and to describe various physical processes. This paper revisits the relationship between relativistic quantum mechanics and the quantum walks. We show the similarities of the mathematical structure of the decoupled and coupled form of the discrete-time quantum walk to that of the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations, respectively. In the latter case, the coin emerges as an analog of the spinor degree of freedom. Discrete-time quantum walk as a coupled form of the continuous-time quantum walk is also shown by transforming the decoupled form of the discrete-time quantum walk to the Schrödinger form. By showing the coin to be a means to make the walk reversible, and that the Dirac-like structure is a consequence of the coin use, our work suggests that the relativistic causal structure is a consequence of conservation of information. However, decoherence (modelled by projective measurements on position space) generates entropy that increases with time, making the walk irreversible and thereby producing an arrow of time. Lieb-Robinson bound is used to highlight the causal structure of the quantum walk to put in perspective the relativistic structure of quantum walk, the maximum speed the walk propagation and the earlier findings related to the finite spread of the walk probability distribution. We also present a two-dimensional quantum walk model on a two state system to which the study can be extended. * Electronic address: cmadaiah@iqc.ca † Electronic address: subhashish@cmi.ac.in ‡ Electronic address: srik@poornaprajna.org

We use NMR quantum simulators to study antiferromagnetic Ising spin chains undergoing quantum phase transitions. Taking advantage of the sensitivity of the systems near criticality, we detect the critical points of the transitions using a direct measurement of the Loschmidt echo. We test our simulators for spin chains of even and odd numbers of spins, and compare the experimental results to theoretical predictions

We study some discrete symmetries of unbiased (Hadamard) and biased quantum walk on a line, which are shown to hold even when the quantum walker is subjected to environmental effects. The noise models considered in order to account for these effects are the phase flip, bit flip and generalized amplitude damping channels. The numerical solutions are obtained by evolving the density matrix, but the persistence of the symmetries in the presence of noise is proved using the quantum trajectories approach. We also briefly extend these studies to quantum walk on a cycle. These investigations can be relevant to the implementation of quantum walks in various known physical systems. We discuss the implementation in the case of NMR quantum information processor and ultra cold atoms.

We present a generalized version of the discrete time quantum walk, using the SU(2) operation as the quantum coin. By varying the coin parameters, the quantum walk can be optimized for maximum variance subject to the functional form $\sigma^2 \approx N^2$ and the probability distribution in the position space can be biased. We also discuss the variation in measurement entropy with the variation of the parameters in the SU(2) coin. Exploiting this we show how quantum walk can be optimized for improving mixing time in an $n$-cycle and for quantum walk search.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

From the unitary operator used for implementing two-state discrete-time quantum walk on one-, two- and three- dimensional lattice we obtain a two-component Dirac-like Hamiltonian. In particular, using different pairs of Pauli basis as position translation states we obtain three different form of Hamiltonians for evolution on one-dimensional lattice. We extend this to two- and three-dimensional lattices using different Pauli basis states as position translation states for each dimension and show that the external coin operation, which is necessary for one-dimensional walk is not a necessary requirement for a walk on higher dimensions but can serve as an additional resource to control the dynamics. The two-component Hamiltonian we present here for quantum walk on different lattices can serve as a general framework to simulate, control, and study the dynamics of quantum systems governed by Dirac-like Hamiltonian.

We present an approach to induce localization of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional lattice under the influence of unitary quantum-walk evolution using disordered quantum coin operation. We introduce a discrete-time quantum-walk model in which the interference effect is modified to diffuse or strongly localize the probability distribution of the particle by assigning a different set of coin parameters picked randomly for each step of the walk, respectively. Spatial localization of the particle or state is explained by comparing the variance of the probability distribution of the quantum walk in position space using disordered coin operation to that of the walk using an identical coin operation for each step. Due to the high degree of control over quantum coin operation and most of the system parameters, ultracold atoms in an optical lattice offer opportunities to implement a disordered quantum walk that is unitary and induces localization. Here we present a scheme to use a Bose-Einstein condensate that can be evolved to the superposition of its internal states in an optical lattice and control the dynamics of atoms to observe localization. This approach can be adopted to any other physical system in which controlled disordered quantum walk can be implemented.

No abstract