Unidirectional quantum walk of two correlated particles: Separating bound-pair and unbound wavepacket components

Abstract

We study the unidirectional transport of two-particle quantum wavepackets in a regular one-dimensional lattice. We show that the bound-pair state component behaves differently from unbound states when subjected to an external pulsed electric field. Thus, strongly entangled particles exhibit a quite distinct dynamics when compared to a single particle system. With respect to centroid motion, our numerical results are corroborated with an analytical expression obtained using a semi-classical approach. The wavefunction profile reveals that the particle-particle interaction induces the splitting of the initial wavepacket into two branches that propagate with specific directions and drift velocities. With a proper external field tunning, the wavepacket components can perform an unidirectional transport on the same or opposite directions. The amplitude of each mode is related to the degree of entanglement betweem particles, which presents a non-monotonic dependence on the interaction strength.