📝 SummarXiv

Abstract

We introduce a discrete-time quantum random walk (QRW) framework for spatial epidemic modelling on a two-dimensional square lattice and compare its dynamics to classical random-walk SIR models. In our model, each infected site spawns a quantum walker whose coherent evolution (controlled by an amplitude-splitting coin and conditional shifts) can infect visited susceptible sites with probability $p$ and persists for a lifetime of $\tau$ steps. We perform extensive numerical simulations on finite lattices, measure cluster observables (single-run cluster size $M$ and its ensemble average $\langle M\rangle$), and compute the basic reproduction number $R_0$ across a broad grid of $(p,\tau)$ values. Results show that QRW dynamics interpolate between diffusive and super-diffusive regimes: at low $p$ the QRW reproduces classical-like $R_0$ and cluster statistics, while at higher $p$ and $\tau$ ballistic propagation and interference produce markedly larger $R_0$ and non-Gaussian spatial profiles. We compare the QRW $R_0$ range to empirical estimates from historical outbreaks and discuss parameter regimes where QRW offers a closer qualitative match than classical diffusion. We conclude that QRWs provide a flexible, conceptually novel toy model for exploring rapid or heavy-tailed epidemic spread, while emphasizing the need for caution when mapping quantum-coherent mechanisms to biological transmission.