A dynamical algebra of protocol-induced transformations on Dicke states

Quantum [Formula: see text]-qubit states that are totally symmetric under the permutation of qubits are essential ingredients of important algorithms and applications in quantum information. Consequently, there is significant interest in developing methods to prepare and manipulate Dicke states, which form a basis for the subspace of fully symmetric states. Two simple protocols for transforming Dicke states are considered. An algebraic characterization of the operations that these protocols induce is obtained in terms of the Weyl algebra [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. Fixed points under the application of the combination of both protocols are explicitly determined. Connections with the binary Hamming scheme, the Hadamard transform and Krawtchouk polynomials are highlighted.This article is part of the theme issue 'Numerical analysis, spectral graph theory, orthogonal polynomials and quantum algorithms'.