This is the page where I post the programs from my Summer 2011 research internship with Dr. Michael McGettrick in NUI Galway's School of Maths. My work was on quantum random walks, or quantum walks (QW) for short. In particular, I modelled three types of QW and provided a web-based means of plotting their probability distributions.
Quantum walks are a generalisation of the classical random walk (RW) to one where the walker moves according to the laws of quantum mechanics. In a nutshell, the difference between RW & QW are that the classical walker has a definite position after each step of the walk, whereas the quantum walker takes all possible paths in time, and has probabilities of being at each of a set of positions at the end of the walk. Thus, by superposition, intereference may occur between the different paths. This leads to non-intuitive quantum effects that can be used in advanced quantum algorithms.
The reason for studying QW is given by the great use made of RW to efficiently solve certain problems in computer science. QW have the potential to provide new quantum algorithms for solving problems quicker than classical algortihms. In particular, they may be able to tackle some NP problems in polynomial time. With the advent of quantum computing it has become feasible to perform these QW on a real quantum computer.
To see a PDF of my report on the internship, click here.