Dynamical Phase Transitions in Open Quantum Walks

Dynamical phase transitions in the relaxation behavior of stochastic quantum walks are investigated, focusing on systems where coherent unitary evolution is periodically interrupted by dephasing. This interplay leads to a classicalization of the dynamics, effectively described by non-equilibrium Markovian processes that can violate detailed balance. As a result, such systems exhibit a richer and more complex spectral structure than their equilibrium counterparts. Extending recent insights from classical Markov dynamics [G. Teza et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 207103 (2023)], it is demonstrated that these quantum-classical hybrid systems can host not only first-order dynamical phase transitions – characterized by eigenvalue crossings – but also second-order transitions marked by the coalescence of eigenvalues and eigenvectors at exceptional points. Two paradigmatic models are analyzed: a quantum walk on a ring under gauge fields and a walk on a finite line with internal degrees of freedom, both exhibiting distinct mechanisms for breaking detailed balance. These findings reveal a novel class of critical behavior in open quantum systems, where decoherence-induced classicalization enables access to non-Hermitian spectral phenomena. Beyond their fundamental interest, these results offer promising implications for quantum technologies, including quantum simulation, error mitigation, and the engineering of controllable non-equilibrium quantum states.