The Witten Index for One-dimensional Non-unitary Quantum Walks with Gapless Time-evolution

TL;DR

This paper extends the index theory of quantum walks to non-unitary cases, removing the gap assumption needed for unitary walks, and applies it to a known non-unitary quantum walk model.

Contribution

The paper develops a new index theory for non-unitary quantum walks that does not require the essential gap condition, broadening the applicability of the theory.

Findings

The index theory is extended to non-unitary quantum walks.

The gap assumption is no longer necessary for defining the index.

Application to a known non-unitary quantum walk model demonstrates the theory's effectiveness.

Abstract

Recent developments in the index theory of discrete-time quantum walks allow us to assign a certain well-defined supersymmetric index to a pair of a unitary time-evolution $U$ and a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-grading operator $\varGamma$ satisfying the chiral symmetry condition $U^* = \varGamma U \varGamma.$ In this paper, this index theory will be extended to encompass non-unitary $U$. The existing literature for unitary $U$ makes use of the indispensable assumption that $U$ is essentially gapped; that is, we require that the essential spectrum of $U$ contains neither $-1$ nor $+1$ to define the associated index. It turns out that this assumption is no longer necessary, if the given time-evolution $U$ is non-unitary. As a concrete example, we shall consider a well-known non-unitary quantum walk model on the one-dimensional integer lattice, introduced by Mochizuki-Kim-Obuse.