We analyze two families of three-state quantum walks which show the localization effect. We focus on the role of the initial coin state and its coherence in controlling the properties of the quantum walk. In particular, we show that the description o
f the walk simplifies considerably when the initial coin state is decomposed in the basis formed by the eigenvectors of the coin operator. This allows us to express the limit distributions in a much more convenient form. Consequently, striking features which are hidden in the standard basis description are easily identified. Moreover, the dependence of moments of the position distribution on the initial coin state can be analyzed in full detail. In particular, we find that in the eigenvector basis the even moments and the localization probability at the origin depend only on incoherent combination of probabilities. In contrast, odd moments and localization outside the origin are affected by the coherence of the initial coin state.
The control of quantum walk is made particularly transparent when the initial state is expressed in terms of the eigenstates of the coin operator. We show that the group-velocity density acquires a much simpler form when expressed in this basis. This
allows us to obtain a much deeper understanding of the role of the initial coin state on the dynamics of quantum walks and control it. We find that the eigenvectors of the coin result in an extremal regime of a quantum walk. The approach is illustrated on two examples of quantum walks on a line.
