Continuous-time quantum walk on an extended star graph: Trapping and superradiance transition

Continuous-Time Quantum Walk in Glued Trees: Localized State-Mediated Almost Perfect Quantum-State Transfer

In this work, the dynamics of a quantum walker on glued trees is revisited to understand the influence of the architecture of the graph on the efficiency of the transfer between the two roots. Instead of considering regular binary trees, we focus our attention on leafier structures where each parent node could give rise to a larger number of children. Through extensive numerical simulations, we uncover a significant dependence of the transfer on the underlying graph architecture, particularly influenced by the branching rate (M) relative to the root degree (N). Our study reveals that the behavior of the walker is isomorphic to that of a particle moving on a finite-size chain. This chain exhibits defects that originate in the specific nature of both the roots and the leaves. Therefore, the energy spectrum of the chain showcases rich features, which lead to diverse regimes for the quantum-state transfer. Notably, the formation of quasi-degenerate localized states due to significant disparities between M and N triggers a localization process on the roots. Through analytical development, we demonstrate that these states play a crucial role in facilitating almost perfect quantum beats between the roots, thereby enhancing the transfer efficiency. Our findings offer valuable insights into the mechanisms governing quantum-state transfer on trees, with potential applications for the transfer of quantum information.

Extended star graph as a light-harvesting-complex prototype: Excitonic absorption speedup by peripheral energy defect tuning

We study the quantum dynamics of a photoexcitation uniformly distributed at the periphery of an extended star network (with N_{B} branches of length L_{B}). More specifically, we address here the question of the energy absorption at the core of the network and how this process can be improved (or not) by the inclusion of peripheral defects with a tunable energy amplitude Δ. Our numerical simulations reveal the existence of optimal value of energy defect Δ^{*} which depends on the network architecture. Around this value, the absorption process presents a strong speedup (i.e., reduction of the absorption time) provided that L_{B}≤L_{B}^{*} with L_{B}^{*}≈12.5/ln(N_{B}). Analytical and numerical developments are then conducted to interpret this feature. We show that the origin of this speedup takes place in the hybridization of two upper-band excitonic eigenstates. This hybridization is important when L_{B}≤L_{B}^{*} and vanishes almost totally when L_{B}>L_{B}^{*}. These structural rules we draw here could represent a potential guide for the practical design of molecular nanonetwork dedicated to the realization of efficient photoexcitation absorption.

Perturbed graphs achieve unit transport efficiency without environmental noise

Coherent transport of an excitation through a network corresponds to continuous-time quantum walk on a graph, and the transport properties of the system may be radically different depending on the graph and on the initial state. The transport efficiency, i.e., the integrated probability of trapping at a certain vertex, is a measure of the success rate of the transfer process. Purely coherent quantum transport is known to be less efficient than the observed excitation transport, e.g., in biological systems, and there is evidence that environmental noise is indeed crucial for excitation transport. At variance with this picture, we here address purely coherent transport on highly symmetric graphs, and show analytically that it is possible to enhance the transport efficiency without environmental noise, i.e., using only a minimal perturbation of the graph. In particular, we show that adding an extra weight to one or two edges, depending on whether the initial state is localized or in a superposition of two vertex states, breaks the inherent symmetries of the graph and may be sufficient to achieve unit transport efficiency. We also briefly discuss the conditions to obtain a null transport efficiency, i.e., to avoid trapping.

Mean-field theory of superradiant phase transition in complex networks

In this work we consider a superradiant phase transition problem for the Dicke-Ising model, which generalizes the Dicke and Ising models for annealed complex networks presuming spin-spin interaction. The model accounts for the interaction between a spin-1/2 (two-level) system and external classical (magnetic) and quantized (transverse) fields. We examine regular, random, and scale-free network structures characterized by the δ function, random (Poisson), and power-law exponent [p(k)∝k^{-γ}] degree distributions, respectively. To describe paramagnetic (PM)-ferromagrenic (FM) and superradiant (SR) phase transitions we introduce two order parameters: the total weighted spin z component and the normalized transverse field amplitude, which correspond to the spontaneous magnetization in z and x directions, respectively. For the regular networks and vanishing external field we demonstrate that these phase transitions generally represent prerequisites for the crossover from a disordered spin state to the ordered one inherent to the FM and/or SR phase. Due to the interplay between the spin interaction and the finite-size effects in networks we elucidate novel features of the SR state in the presence of the PM-FM phase transition. In particular, we show that the critical temperature may be high enough and essentially depends on parameters which characterize statistical properties of the network structure. For the scale-free networks we demonstrate that the network architecture, characterized by the particular value of γ, plays a key role in the SR phase transition problem. Within the anomalous regime scale-free networks possess a strong effective spin-spin interaction supporting fully ordered FM state, which is practically nonsensitive to variations of the quantum transverse field or moderate classical magnetic field. In a scale-free regime the networks exhibit vanishing of the collective spin component in z direction with increasing γ accompanied by establishing spontaneous magnetization in the transverse field. The SR phase transition occurs in the presence of some FM state. We establish the conditions for the network parameters, classical and quantum field features to obtain a quantum phase transition in the spin system when the critical temperature approaches zero.

Transport Efficiency of Continuous-Time Quantum Walks on Graphs

Continuous-time quantum walk describes the propagation of a quantum particle (or an excitation) evolving continuously in time on a graph. As such, it provides a natural framework for modeling transport processes, e.g., in light-harvesting systems. In particular, the transport properties strongly depend on the initial state and specific features of the graph under investigation. In this paper, we address the role of graph topology, and investigate the transport properties of graphs with different regularity, symmetry, and connectivity. We neglect disorder and decoherence, and assume a single trap vertex that is accountable for the loss processes. In particular, for each graph, we analytically determine the subspace of states having maximum transport efficiency. Our results provide a set of benchmarks for environment-assisted quantum transport, and suggest that connectivity is a poor indicator for transport efficiency. Indeed, we observe some specific correlations between transport efficiency and connectivity for certain graphs, but, in general, they are uncorrelated.

Continuous-time quantum walk on an extended star graph: Disorder-enhanced trapping process

Using a tight binding model, we investigate the dynamics of an exciton on a disordered extended star graph whose central site acts as an energy trap. When compared with what happens in an ordered network, our results reveal that the disorder drastically improves the excitonic absorption that becomes complete. Moreover, we show the occurrence of an optimal disorder for which the absorption time is strongly minimized, a surprising effect that originates in a disorder-induced restructuring process of the exciton eigenstates. Finally, we also show the existence of an optimal value of the absorption rate that reduces even more the absorption time. The resulting superoptimized trapping process is interpreted as a positive interplay between both the disorder and the so-called superradiance transition.