Quantum walks on blow-up graphs

Abstract

A blow-up of n copies of a graph G is the graph obtained by replacing every vertex of G by an independent set of size n, where the copies of two vertices in G are adjacent in the blow-up if and only if they are adjacent in G. In this work, we characterize strong cospectrality, periodicity, perfect state transfer (PST) and pretty good state transfer (PGST) in blow-up graphs. We prove that if a blow-up admits PST or PGST, then n = 2. In particular, if G has an invertible adjacency matrix, then each vertex in a blow of two copies of G pairs up with a unique vertex to exhibit strong cospectrality. Under mild conditions, we show that periodicity (resp., almost periodicity) of a vertex in G guarantees PST (resp. PGST) between the two copies of the vertex in the blow-up. This allows us to construct new families of graphs with PST from graphs that do not admit PST. We also characterize PST and PGST in the blow-ups of complete graphs, paths, cycles and cones. Finally, while trees in general do not admit PST, we provide infinite families of stars and subdivided stars whose blow-ups admit PST.