Simulating Anderson localization via a quantum walk on a one-dimensional lattice of superconducting qubits

Quantum walk (QW) in presence of lattice disorders leads to a multitude of interesting phenomena, such as Anderson localization. While QW has been realized in various optical and atomic systems, its implementation with superconducting qubits still remains pending. The major challenge in simulating QW with superconducting qubits emerges from the fact that on-chip superconducting qubits cannot hop between two adjacent lattice sites. Here we overcome this barrier and develop a scheme to realize the discrete time QW by placing a pair of superconducting qubits on each site of a 1D lattice and treating an excitation as a walker. It is also shown that lattice disorders can be introduced and fully controlled within this scheme by tuning the qubit parameters. We observe a distinct signature of transition from the ballistic regime to a localized QW with an increasing strength of disorder. Finally, an eight-qubit experiment is proposed where the signature of localized and delocalized regimes can be detected with existing superconducting technology.