Quantum Random Walks of Waves

Abstract

The extremely fascinating behaviors of the quantum walks of particles, which differ much from the classical counterparts, have attracted many physicists. Here we investigate another interesting part of the quantum walks, that is the quantum walks of waves. Firstly, we show the behaviors of the quantum walks of plane wave, which are largely different from the counterparts of either the classical or the quantum walks of particles. Two situations - with and without intermediate time measurements of the walks are considered. At last, it is shown that the quantum walks of plane wave can be used to calculate the evolution of the general wave packets, e.g., Gaussian wave packet.