Enhanced quantum transport in chiral quantum walks

Abstract Quantum transport across discrete structures is a relevant topic that can be suitably studied in the context of continuous-time quantum walks. The addition of phase degrees of freedom, leading to chiral quantum walks, can also account for directional transport on graphs with loops. We discuss criteria for quantum transport and study the enhancement that can be achieved with chiral quantum walks on chain-like graphs, exploring different topologies for the chain units and optimizing over the phases. We select three candidate structures with optimal performances and we investigate their transport behaviour with Krylov reduction. While one of them can be reduced to a weighted line with minor couplings modulation, the other two are truly chiral quantum walks, with enhanced transport probability over long chain structures.