Defining a quantum active particle using non-Hermitian quantum walk

The main aim of the present paper is to define an active matter in a quantum framework 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; on the contrary, there is no universal theoretical framework for quantum active matter. We here propose a truly quantum active-matter model with a non-Hermitian quantum walk and show numerical results in one- and two-dimensional systems. We aim to reproduce similar results that Schweitzer \textit{et al.} obtained with their classical active Brownian particle; that is, the Brownian particle, with a finite energy take-up, becomes active and climbs up a potential wall. We realize such a system with non-Hermitian quantum walks. We introduce new internal states, the ground state and the excited state, and a new non-Hermitian operator $N(g)$ for an asymmetric transition between both states. The non-Hermiticity parameter $g$ promotes transition to the excited state and hence the particle takes up energy from the environment. We realize a system without momentum conservation by manipulating a parameter $\theta$ for the coin operator for a discrete-time quantum walk; we utilize the property that the continuum limit of a one-dimensional discrete-time quantum walk gives the Dirac equation with its mass proportional to the parameter $\theta$. 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 unique features of quantum walks, namely, ballistic propagation of peaks (1D) and the walker staying on the constant energy plane (2D).