The role of measurement in the recurrence property of discrete timed quantum walks
L. Kecskés, T. Kiss, M. Štefaňák, Igor Jex · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2011
The quantum mechanical generalisation of random walks (called Quantum Walks) present us with a broader spectrum of possibilities compared to their classical counterparts. The aim of the presented study is to explore a new portion of this area by incorporating a new step in the process of the Quantum Walk unique to quantum mechanics: the measurement. Our focus lies in the characterising number of the recurrence behaviour of the walk (Polya-number). We observe the effect of the standard projective measurement, a yes-no measurement on the origin and the effect of different measurement schemes (periodic and random) on the definition and the numeric value of the Polya-number.