Galois-unitary operators that cycle mutually-unbiased bases

ORAL

Abstract

Wigner's theorem states that probability-preserving transformations of quantum states must be either unitary or anti-unitary. However, if we restrict ourselves to a subspace of a Hilbert space, it is possible to generalize the notion of anti-unitaries. Such transformations were recently constructed in search of Symmetric Informationally-Complete (SIC) states. They are called Galois-unitaries (g-unitaries for short), as they are unitaries composed with Galois automorphisms of a chosen number field extension. Despite certain bizarre behaviors of theirs, we show that g-unitaries are indeed useful in the theory of Mutually-Unbiased Bases (MUBs), as they help solve the MUB-cycling problem and provide a construction of MUB-balanced states.

*HD was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship

Authors

  • Hoan Dang

    • Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics \& University of Waterloo
  • Marcus Appleby

    • University of Sydney
  • Ingemar Bengtsson

    • Stockholms University