Quantum walk in stochastic environment

Abstract

We consider a quantized version of the Sinai-Derrida model for "random walk in random environment". The model is defined in terms of a Lindblad master equation. For a ring geometry (a chain with periodic boundary condition) it features a delocalization-transition as the bias in increased beyond a critical value, indicating that the relaxation becomes under-damped. Counter intuitively, the effective disorder is enhanced due to coherent hopping. We analyze in detail this enhancement and its dependence on the model parameters. The non-monotonic dependence of the Lindbladian spectrum on the rate of the coherent transitions is highlighted.