Defining a quantum active particle using a non-unitary quantum walk

Abstract The main aim of the present paper is to define an active particle in a quantum framework as a minimal model of quantum active matter and investigate difference and commonalities of quantum and classical active matters. Although the research field of active matter has been expanding wider and wider, most research is conducted in classical systems. We here propose a truly deterministic quantum active-particle model with a non-unitary quantum walk as minimal models of quantum active matter. We aim to reproduce similar results obtained previously with classical active Brownian particle; that is, a Brownian particle, with a finite energy take-up, becomes active and climbs up a potential wall. We realize such a system with non-unitary quantum walks. We introduce new internal states, the ground state |G⟩ and the excited state |E⟩, and a new non-unitary operator N(g) for an asymmetric transition between |G⟩ and |E⟩. The non-Hermiticity parameter g promotes transition to the excited state and hence the particle takes up energy from the environment. With our quantum active particle, we successfully observe that the movement of the quantum walker becomes more active in a non-trivial way as we increase the non-Hermiticity parameter g, which is similar to the classical active Brownian particle. Meanwhile, we also observe three unique features of quantum walks, namely, ballistic propagation of peaks in one dimension, the walker staying on the constant energy plane in two dimensions, and oscillations originating from the resonant transition between the ground state |G⟩ and excited state |E⟩ both in one and two dimensions.