Arbitrary coherent distributions in a programmable quantum walk

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to engineer arbitrary coherent distributions in a programmable quantum walk using a stable optical circuit, enabling advanced quantum computation and simulation applications.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible optical setup for realizing arbitrary coherent distributions in quantum walks with resource efficiency.

Findings

Successfully implemented arbitrary coherent distributions in a quantum walk.

Demonstrated the stability and control of the optical circuit.

Showcased potential applications in quantum information processing.

Abstract

The coherent superposition of position states in a quantum walk (QW) can be precisely engineered towards the desired distributions to meet the need of quantum information applications. The coherent distribution can make full use of quantum parallel in computation and simulation. Particularly, the uniform superposition provides the robust non-locality, which has wide applications such as the generation of genuine multi-bit random numbers without post-processing. We experimentally demonstrate that the rich dynamics featured with arbitrary coherent distributions can be obtained by introducing different sets of the time- and position-dependent operations. Such a QW is realized by a resource-constant and flexible optical circuit, in which the variable operation is executed based on a Sagnac interferometer in an intrinsically stable and precisely controlled way. Our results contribute to the practical realization of quantum-walk-based quantum computation, quantum simulations and quantum information protocols.