Decoherence in Quantum Walks on the Hypercube

Gorjan Alagic
Department of Mathematics
University of Connecticut
alagic@math.uconn.edu


Abstract

      Recent research in quantum computation has led to the development of natural quantum analogues of the classical random walk. This area of research has already met with significant success, in particular by producing a quantum walk algorithm for an oracle problem, which performs exponentially better than is possible classically.

     In this talk, we will discuss the continuous quantum walk on a graph, as well as recent results (joint work with Alexander Russell) about the effects of decoherence on the quantum walk on the hypercube. Since any real quantum system suffers from decoherence, this is a matter of significant importance for any practical implementation.


Given at the Northeastern Section MAA Fall 2005 Meeting, University of New Hampshire, Nov. 19th, 2005.