Bloch varieties and quantum ergodicity for periodic graph operators

For periodic graph operators, we establish criteria to determine the overlaps of spectral band functions based on Bloch varieties. One criterion states that for a large family of periodic graph operators, the irreducibility of Bloch varieties implies no non-trivial periods for spectral band functions. This particularly shows that spectral band functions of discrete periodic Schrödinger operators on ℤ^d have no non-trivial periods, answering positively a question asked by Mckenzie and Sabri [Quantum ergodicity for periodic graphs, Comm. Math. Phys. 403 (2023), 1477–1509].