A complete characterization of pretty good state transfer on paths

Abstract

We give a complete characterization of pretty good state transfer on paths between any pair of vertices with respect to the quantum walk model determined by the XY-Hamiltonian. If n is the length of the path, and the vertices are indexed by the positive integers from 1 to n, with adjacent vertices having consecutive indices, then the necessary and sufficient conditions for pretty good state transfer between vertices a and b are that (a) a + b = n + 1, (b) n + 1 has at most one positive odd non-trivial divisor, and (c) if n = 2^t r - 1, for r odd and r \neq 1, then a is a multiple of 2^{t - 1}.