Chiral quantum walks

Lu, D. W. and Biamonte, J. D. and Li, J. and Li, H. and Johnson, T. H. and Zimborás, Zoltán (2016) Chiral quantum walks. PHYSICAL REVIEW A, 93 (4). ISSN 2469-9926

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Abstract

Given its importance to many other areas of physics, from condensed matter physics to ther- modynamics, time-reversal symmetry has had relatively little influence on quantum information science. Here we develop a network-based picture of time-reversal theory, classifying Hamiltonians and quantum circuits as time-symmetric or not in terms of the elements and geometries of their underlying networks. Many of the typical circuits of quantum information science are found to ex- hibit time-asymmetry. Moreover, we show that time-asymmetry in circuits can be controlled using local gates only, and can simulate time-asymmetry in Hamiltonian evolution. We experimentally implement a fundamental example in which controlled time-reversal asymmetry in a palindromic quantum circuit leads to near-perfect transport. Our results pave the way for using time-symmetry breaking to control coherent transport, and imply that time-asymmetry represents an omnipresent yet poorly understood effect in quantum information science.

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