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JOURNALS // Uspekhi Matematicheskikh Nauk // Archive

Uspekhi Mat. Nauk, 2022 Volume 77, Issue 3(465), Pages 73–160 (Mi rm10025)

This article is cited in 8 papers

Feynman checkers: towards algorithmic quantum theory

M. B. Skopenkovabc, A. V. Ustinovad

a Faculty of Mathematics, HSE University
b Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Kharkevich Institute)
c King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
d Khabarovsk Division of the Institute for Applied Mathematics, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract: We survey and develop the most elementary model of electron motion introduced by Feynman. In this game, a checker moves on a checkerboard by simple rules, and we count the turns. Feynman checkers are also known as a one-dimensional quantum walk or an Ising model at imaginary temperature. We solve mathematically a Feynman problem from 1965, which was to prove that the discrete model (for large time, small average velocity, and small lattice step) is consistent with the continuum one. We study asymptotic properties of the model (for small lattice step and large time) improving the results due to Narlikar from 1972 and to Sunada and Tate from 2012. For the first time we observe and prove concentration of measure in the small-lattice-step limit. We perform the second quantization of the model.
We also present a survey of known results on Feynman checkers.
Bibliography: 53 titles.

Keywords: Feynman checkerboard, quantum walk, Ising model, Young diagram, Dirac equation, stationary phase method.

UDC: 17.958:530.145

MSC: 82B20, 11L03, 68Q12, 81P68, 81T25, 81T40, 05A17, 11P82, 33C45

Received: 27.08.2021

DOI: 10.4213/rm10025


 English version:
Russian Mathematical Surveys, 2022, 77:3, 445–530

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© Steklov Math. Inst. of RAS, 2025