Full Characterization of Oscillatory Localization of Quantum Walks

Andris Ambainis, Krišjānis Prūsis, Jevgēnijs Vihrovs, Thomas G. Wong

Published 2016-06-07Version 1

Discrete-time quantum walks are well-known for exhibiting localization, a quantum phenomenon where the walker remains at its initial location with high probability. In companion with a joint Letter, we introduce oscillatory localization, where the walker alternates between two states. The walk is given by the flip-flop shift, which is easily defined on non-lattice graphs, and the Grover coin. Extremely simple examples of the localization exist, such as a walker jumping back and forth between two vertices of the complete graph. We show that only two kinds of states, called flip states and uniform states, exhibit exact oscillatory localization. So the projection of an arbitrary state onto these gives a lower bound on the extent of oscillatory localization. Thus we completely characterize the states that oscillate under the quantum walk.