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We investigate the symmetries of so-called generalized extended CMV matrices. It is well-documented that problems involving reflection symmetries of standard extended CMV matrices can be subtle. We show how to deal with this in an elegant fashion by passing to the class of generalized extended CMV matrices via explicit diagonal unitaries in the spirit of Cantero-Gr\"unbaum-Moral-Vel\'azquez. As an application of these ideas, we construct an explicit family of almost-periodic CMV matrices, which we call the mosaic unitary almost-Mathieu operator, and prove the occurrence of exact mobility edges. That is, we show the existence of energies that separate spectral regions with absolutely continuous and pure point spectrum and exactly calculate them., Comment: 35 pages, 3 figures

We introduce a unitary almost-Mathieu operator, which is obtained from a two-dimensional quantum walk in a uniform magnetic field. We exhibit a version of Aubry--Andr\'{e} duality for this model, which partitions the parameter space into three regions: a supercritical region and a subcritical region that are dual to one another, and a critical regime that is self-dual. In each parameter region, we characterize the cocycle dynamics of the transfer matrix cocycle generated by the associated generalized eigenvalue equation. In particular, we show that supercritical, critical, and subcritical behavior all occur in this model. Using Avila's global theory of one-frequency cocycles, we exactly compute the Lyapunov exponent on the spectrum in terms of the given parameters. We also characterize the spectral type for each value of the coupling constant, almost every frequency, and almost every phase. Namely, we show that for almost every frequency and every phase the spectral type is purely absolutely continuous in the subcritical region, pure point in the supercritical region, and purely singular continuous in the critical region. In some parameter regions, we refine the almost-sure results. In the critical case for instance, we show that the spectrum is a Cantor set of zero Lebesgue measure for arbitrary irrational frequency and that the spectrum is purely singular continuous for all but countably many phases., Comment: 41 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Commun. Math. Phys