A Generalized Quantum Optical Scheme for Implementing Open Quantum Walks

Abstract

Open quantum walks (OQWs) are a new type of quantum walks which are entirely driven by the dissipative interaction with external environments and are formulated as completely positive trace-preserving maps on graphs. A generalized quantum optical scheme for implementing OQWs that includes non-zero temperature of the environment is suggested. In the proposed quantum optical scheme, a two-level atom plays the role of the "walker", and the Fock states of the cavity mode correspond to the lattice sites for the "walker". Using the small unitary rotations approach the effective dynamics of the system is shown to be an OQW. For the chosen set of parameters, an increase in the temperature of the environment causes the system to reach the asymptotic distribution much faster compared to the scheme proposed earlier where the temperature of the environment is zero. For this case the asymptotic distribution is given by a steady Gaussian distribution.