Product Weyl-Heisenberg covariant MUBs and Maximizers of Magick

TL;DR

This paper explores the structure of mutually unbiased bases and symmetric informationally complete measurements in quantum systems using product group symmetries, introducing a new measure called magick to identify optimal states.

Contribution

It introduces a novel notion of magick for product Hilbert spaces and constructs fiducial states that generate mutually unbiased bases and SIC measurements in prime-power dimensions.

Findings

Explicit construction of fiducial states in all prime-power dimensions p^n with p ≥ 3.

Extension of known constructions for p ≥ 5 and a new approach for p=3 using Galois rings.

Identification of fiducial states related to Hoggar's SIC for 8-qubit systems.

Abstract

In this work we investigate discrete structures in product Hilbert spaces. For monopartite systems of size $d$ one relies on the Weyl-Heisenberg group $WH(d)$, while in the case of composite Hilbert spaces we identify designs covariant with respect to the product group, $[WH(p)]^{\otimes n}$. In analogy with magic -a quantity attaining its maximum for states fiducial with respect to $WH(d)$ -we introduce a similar notion of magick, defined with respect to the product group. The maximum of this quantity over all equimodular vectors yields fiducial states that generate $d$ $\textit{a priori}$ isoentangled mutually unbiased bases (MUBs), which, when supplemented by the identity, form their complete set. Such fiducial states are explicitly constructed in all prime-power dimensions $p^n$ with $p\ge 3$. The result for $p\ge 5$ extends the construction of Klappenecker and R\"{o}tteler, whereas for $p=3$ it is mathematically distinct and is based on Galois rings. The global maximum of magick for $d=2^3$ yields fiducial states corresponding to the symmetric informationally complete (SIC) generalized measurement of Hoggar. Our approach feeds into a unifying perspective in which highly symmetric quantum designs emerge from fiducial states with extremal properties via structured group-orbit constructions.