History Dependent Quantum Random Walks as Quantum Lattice Gas Automata

Abstract

Quantum Random Walks (QRW) were first defined as one-particle sectors of Quantum Lattice Gas Automata (QLGA). Recently, they have been generalized to include history dependence, either on previous coin (internal, i.e., spin or velocity) states or on previous position states. These models have the goal of studying the transition to classicality, or more generally, changes in the performance of quantum walks in algorithmic applications. We show that several history dependent QRW can be identified as one-particle sectors of QLGA. This provides a unifying conceptual framework for these models in which the extra degrees of freedom required to store the history information arise naturally as geometrical degrees of freedom on the lattice.