Scattering and perturbation theory for discrete-time dynamics

Abstract: We present a systematic treatment of scattering processes for quantum systems whose time evolution is discrete. We define and show some general properties of the scattering operator, in particular the conservation of quasi-energy which is defined only modulo $2 \pi$. Then we develop two perturbative techniques for the power series expansion of the scattering operator, the first one analogous to the iterative solution of the Lippmann-Schwinger equation, the second one to the Dyson series of perturbative Quantum Field Theory. We use this formalism to compare the scattering amplitudes of a continuous-time model and of the corresponding discretized one. We give a rigorous assessment of the comparison for the case of bounded free Hamiltonian, as in a lattice theory with a bounded number of particles. Our framework can be applied to a wide class of quantum simulators, like quantum walks and quantum cellular automata. As a case study, we analyse the scattering properties of a one-dimensional cellular automaton with locally interacting fermions.