Decoherence in two-dimensional quantum walks

We analyze the decoherence in quantum walks in two-dimensional lattices generated by broken-link-type noise. In this type of decoherence, the links of the lattice are randomly broken with some given constant probability. We obtain the evolution equation for a quantum walker moving on two-dimensional (2D) lattices subject to this noise, and we point out how to generalize for lattices in more dimensions. In the nonsymmetric case, when the probability of breaking links in one direction is different from the probability in the perpendicular direction, we have obtained a nontrivial result. If one fixes the link-breaking probability in one direction, and gradually increases the probability in the other direction from 0 to 1, the decoherence initially increases until it reaches a maximum value, and then it decreases. This means that, in some cases, one can increase the noise level and still obtain more coherence. Physically, this can be explained as a transition from a decoherent 2D walk to a coherent 1D walk.