Quantum walkers in a disordered lattice with power-law hopping

Abstract

We study the effects of interparticle interactions and power-law tunneling couplings on quantum walks executed by both a single one and a pair of hard-core bosons moving in clean and disordered one-dimensional lattices. For this purpose, we perform exact diagonalization to explicitly evaluate the short and long time probabilities of finding the walkers within a surveillance area. Our main conclusions, summarized in phase diagrams in the disorder-power-law and interaction-disorder spaces, allowed us to discern two different scenarios for the single and two quantum walkers dynamics. While in the single particle case the transition to localized and extended regimes is identified for well defined values of the disorder amplitude and power law hopping, those frontiers are replaced by diffuse contours in the interacting two particle case. In fact, counterintuitive transport regimes as diffusion enhanced by disorder, and space constrained dynamics assisted by both interactions and short tunneling range are found. Our results are of direct relevance for quantum systems with long-range interactions that are currently realized in the laboratory.