Localisation, delocalisation, and topological transitions in disordered 2D quantum walks

TL;DR

This paper studies how disorder affects 2D quantum walks, revealing that certain walks resist localization while others undergo topological transitions, with critical exponents indicating a universality class akin to the quantum Hall effect.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Hadamard quantum walks do not localize under phase disorder and identifies the topological phase transition with a critical exponent of 2.6, linking it to the quantum Hall universality class.

Findings

Hadamard quantum walk remains diffusive under phase disorder.

Split-step quantum walks localize with phase disorder.

Critical exponent for localization length divergence is 2.6.

Abstract

We investigate time-independent disorder on several two-dimensional discrete-time quantum walks. We find numerically that, contrary to claims in the literature, random onsite phase disorder, spin-dependent or otherwise, cannot localise the Hadamard quantum walk; rather, it induces diffusive spreading of the walker. In contrast, split-step quantum walks are generically localised by phase disorder. We explain this difference by showing that the Hadamard walk is a special case of the split-step quantum walk, with parameters tuned to a critical point at a topological phase transition. We show that the topological phase transition can also be reached by introducing strong disorder in the rotation angles. We determine the critical exponent for the divergence of the localisation length at the topological phase transition, and find $\nu=2.6$, in both cases. This places the two-dimensional split-step quantum walk in the universality class of the quantum Hall effect.