In the present paper, the first in a series of two, we propose a model of universal quantum computation using a fermionic or bosonic multiparticle continuous-time quantum walk with two internal states (e.g., the spin-up and -down states of an electron). A dual-rail encoding is adopted to convert information: A single qubit is represented by the presence of a single quantum walker in either of the two parallel paths. We develop a roundabout gate that moves a walker from one path to the next, either clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on its internal state. It can be realized by a single-particle scattering on a directed weighted graph with the edge weights 1 and $\pm i$. The roundabout gate also allows the spatial information of the quantum walker to be temporarily encoded in its internal states. The universal gates are constructed by appropriately combining several roundabout gates, some unitary gates that act on the internal states, and two-particle scatterings on straight paths. No ancilla qubits are required in our model. The computation is done by just passing quantum walkers through properly designed paths. Namely, there is no need for any time-dependent control. A physical implementation of quantum random access memory compatible with the present model will be considered in the second paper [R. Asaka et al., following paper, Phys. Rev. A 107, 022416 (2023)].

• Received 4 May 2022
• Revised 11 December 2022
• Accepted 11 January 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.107.022415

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Published by the American Physical Society