Perfect state transfer on graphs with a potential

Abstract

In this paper we study quantum state transfer (also called quantum tunneling) on graphs when there is a potential function on the vertex set. We present two main results. First, we show that for paths of length greater than three, there is no potential on the vertices of the path for which perfect state transfer between the endpoints can occur. In particular, this answers a question raised by Godsil in Section 20 of [1]. Second, we show that if a graph has two vertices that share a common neighborhood, then there is a potential on the vertex set for which perfect state transfer will occur between those two vertices. This gives numerous examples where perfect state transfer does not occur without the potential, but adding a potential makes perfect state transfer possible. In addition, we investigate perfect state transfer on graph products, which gives further examples where perfect state transfer can occur.