Two-dimensional quantum walk under artificial magnetic field

Abstract: We introduce the Peierls substitution to a two-dimensional discrete-time quantum walk on a square lattice to examine the spreading dynamics and the coin-position entanglement in the presence of an artificial gauge field. We use the ratio of the magnetic flux through the unit cell to the flux quantum as a control parameter. For a given flux ratio, we obtain faster spreading for a small number of steps and the walker tends to be highly localized around the origin. Moreover, the spreading of the walk can be suppressed and decreased within a limited time interval for specific rational values of flux ratio. When the flux ratio is an irrational number, even for a large number of steps, the spreading exhibit diffusive behavior rather than the well-known ballistic one as in the classical random walk and there is a significant probability of finding the walker at the origin. We also analyze the coin-position entanglement and show that the asymptotic behavior vanishes when the flux ratio is different from zero and the coin-position entanglement become nearly maximal in a periodic manner in a long time range.