Spectral Properties of Quantum Walks on Rooted Binary Trees

Abstract: We define coined Quantum Walks on the infinite rooted binary tree given by unitary operators $U(C)$ on an associated infinite dimensional Hilbert space, depending on a unitary coin matrix $C\in U(3)$, and study their spectral properties. For circulant unitary coin matrices $C$, we derive an equation for the Carath\'eodory function associated to the spectral measure of a cyclic vector for $U(C)$. This allows us to show that for all circulant unitary coin matrices, the spectrum of the Quantum Walk has no singular continuous component. Furthermore, for coin matrices $C$ which are orthogonal circulant matrices, we show that the spectrum of the Quantum Walk is absolutely continuous, except for four coin matrices for which the spectrum of $U(C)$ is pure point.