Periodicity for the 3-state quantum walk on cycles

Abstract

Dukes (2014) and Konno, Shimizu, and Takei (2017) studied the periodicity for 2-state quantum walks whose coin operator is the Hadamard matrix on cycle graph C_N with N vertices. The present paper treats the periodicity for 3-state quantum walks on C_N. Our results follow from a new method based on the cyclotomic field. This method gives a necessary condition for the coin operator for quantum walks to be periodic. Moreover, we reveal the period T_N of typical two kinds of quantum walks, the Grover and Fourier walks. We prove that both walks do not have any finite period except for N=3, in which case T_3=6 (Grover), =12 (Fourier).