Mutually unbiased bases encapsulate the concept of complementarity - the impossibility of simultaneous knowledge of certain observables - in the formalism of quantum theory. Although this concept is at the heart of quantum mechanics, the number of these bases is unknown except for systems of dimension being a power of a prime. We develop the relation between this physical problem and the mathematical problem of finding the number of mutually orthogonal Latin squares. We derive in a simple way all known results about the unbiased bases, find their lower number, and disprove the existence of certain forms of the bases in dimensions different than power of a prime. Using the Latin squares, we construct hidden-variable models which efficiently simulate results of complementary quantum measurements.
We introduce orthogonal quantum Latin squares, which restrict to traditional orthogonal Latin squares, and investigate their application in quantum information science. We use quantum Latin squares to build maximally entangled bases, and show how a pair of mutually unbiased maximally entangled bases can be constructed in square dimension from orthogonal quantum Latin squares. We also compare our construction to an existing construction due to Beth and Wocjan and show that ours is strictly more general.
We show there is a natural connection between Latin squares and commutative sets of monomials defining geometric structures in finite phase-space of prime power dimensions. A complete set of such monomials defines a mutually unbiased basis (MUB) and may be associated with a complete set of mutually orthogonal Latin squares (MOLS). We translate some possible operations on the monomial sets into isomorphisms of Latin squares, and find a general form of permutations that map between Latin squares corresponding to unitarily equivalent mutually unbiased sets. We extend this result to a conjecture: …
The mean king's problem with maximal mutually unbiased bases (MUB's) in general dimension d is investigated. It is shown that a solution of the problem exists if and only if the maximal number (d+1) of orthogonal Latin squares exists. This implies that there is no solution in d=6 or d=10 dimensions even if the maximal number of MUB's exists in these dimensions.
We offer a piece of evidence that the problems of finding the number of mutually unbiased bases (MUB) and mutually orthogonal Latin squares (MOLS) might not be equivalent. We study a particular procedure which has been shown to relate the two problems and generates complete sets of MUBs in power-of-prime dimensions and three MUBs in dimension six. For these cases, every square from an augmented set of MOLS has a corresponding MUB. We show that this no longer holds for certain composite dimensions.
Goyeneche et al.\ [Phys.\ Rev.\ A \textbf{97}, 062326 (2018)] introduced several classes of quantum combinatorial designs, namely quantum Latin squares, quantum Latin cubes, and the notion of orthogonality on them. They also showed that mutually orthogonal quantum Latin arrangements can be entangled in the same way in which quantum states are entangled. Moreover, they established a relationship between quantum combinatorial designs and a remarkable class of entangled states called $k$-uniform states, i.e., multipartite pure states such that every reduction to $k$ parties is maximally mixed. In…
We show that k=w+2 mutually unbiased bases can be constructed in any square dimension d=s^2 provided that there are w mutually orthogonal Latin squares of order s. The construction combines the design-theoretic objects (k,s)-nets (which can be constructed from w mutually orthogonal Latin squares of order s and vice versa) and generalized Hadamard matrices of size s. Using known lower bounds on the asymptotic growth of the number of mutually orthogonal Latin squares (based on number theoretic sieving techniques), we obtain that the number of mutually unbiased bases in dimensions d=s^2 is greate…
We investigate the interplay between mutual unbiasedness and product bases for multiple qudits of possibly different dimensions. A product state of such a system is shown to be mutually unbiased to a product basis only if each of its factors is mutually unbiased to all the states which occur in the corresponding factors of the product basis. This result implies both a tight limit on the number of mutually unbiased product bases which the system can support and a complete classification of mutually unbiased product bases for multiple qubits or qutrits. In addition, only maximally entangled stat…
All mutually unbiased bases in dimension six consisting of product states only are constructed. Several continuous families of pairs and two triples of mutually unbiased product bases are found to exist but no quadruple. The exhaustive classification leads to a proof that a complete set of seven mutually unbiased bases, if it exists, cannot contain a triple of mutually unbiased product bases.
We express Alltop's construction of mutually unbiased bases as orbits under the Weyl-Heisenberg group in prime dimensions and find a related construction in dimensions 2 and 4. We reproduce Alltop's mutually unbiased bases using abelian subgroups of the Clifford group in prime dimensions, in direct analogy to the well-known construction of mutually unbiased bases using abelian subgroups of the Weyl-Heisenberg group. Finally, we prove three theorems relating to the distances and linear dependencies among different sets of mutually unbiased bases.
We develop a strong connection between maximally commuting bases of orthogonal unitary matrices and mutually unbiased bases. A necessary condition of the existence of mutually unbiased bases for any finite dimension is obtained. Then a constructive proof of the existence of mutually unbiased bases for dimensions which are power of a prime is presented. It is also proved that in any dimension d the number of mutually unbiased bases is at most d+1. An explicit representation of mutually unbiased observables in terms of Pauli matrices are provided for d=2^m.
In this work we study the relation between the set of symmetric operators and the set of mutually unbiased operators from finite plane geometry point of view. Here symmetric operators are generalization of symmetric informationally complete probability-operator measurements (SIC POMs), while mutually unbiased operators are the operator generalization of mutually unbiased bases (MUB). We also discuss the implication of this relation to the particular cases of rank-1 SIC POMs and MUB.
The concept of mutually unbiased bases is studied for N pairs of continuous variables. To find mutually unbiased bases reduces, for specific states related to the Heisenberg-Weyl group, to a problem of symplectic geometry. Given a single pair of continuous variables, three mutually unbiased bases are identified while five such bases are exhibited for two pairs of continuous variables. For N = 2, the golden ratio occurs in the definition of these mutually unbiased bases suggesting the relevance of number theory not only in the finite-dimensional setting.
We study the robustness of various protocols for quantum key distribution. We first consider the case of qutrits and study quantum protocols that employ two and three mutually unbiased bases. We then derive the optimal eavesdropping strategy for two mutually unbiased bases in dimension four and generalize the result to a quantum key distribution protocol that uses two mutually unbiased bases in arbitrary finite dimension.
We show that maximal families of mutually unbiased bases are characterized in all dimensions by partitioned unitary error bases, up to a choice of a family of Hadamards. Furthermore, we give a new construction of partitioned unitary error bases, and thus maximal families of mutually unbiased bases, from a finite field, which is simpler and more direct than previous proposals. We introduce new tensor diagrammatic characterizations of maximal families of mutually unbiased bases, partitioned unitary error bases, and finite fields as algebraic structures defined over Hilbert spaces.
We study the entanglement detection by using mutually unbiased measurements and provide a quantum separability criterion that can be experimentally implemented for arbitrary $d$-dimensional bipartite systems. We show that this criterion is more effective than the criterion based on mutually unbiased bases. For isotropic states our criterion becomes both necessary and sufficient.
We derive a novel version of information-disturbance theorems for mutually unbiased observables. We show that the information gain by Eve inevitably makes the outcomes by Bob in the conjugate basis not only erroneous but random.
We relate the construction of a complete set of cyclic mutually unbiased bases, i. e., mutually unbiased bases generated by a single unitary operator, in power-of-two dimensions to the problem of finding a symmetric matrix over F_2 with an irreducible characteristic polynomial that has a given Fibonacci index. For dimensions of the form 2^(2^k) we present a solution that shows an analogy to an open conjecture of Wiedemann in finite field theory. Finally, we discuss the equivalence of mutually unbiased bases.
We derive new inequalities for the probabilities of projective measurements in mutually unbiased bases of a qudit system. These inequalities lead to wider ranges of validity and tighter bounds on entropic uncertainty inequalities previously derived in the literature.
We systematically study the construction of mutually unbiased bases in $\mathbb{C}^{2}\bigotimes\mathbb{C}^{3}$, such that all the bases are unextendible maximally entangled ones. Necessary conditions of constructing a pair of mutually unbiased unextendible maximally entangled bases in $\mathbb{C}^{2}\bigotimes\mathbb{C}^{3}$ are derived. Explicit examples are presented.
We formulate some properties of a set of several mutually unbiased measurements. These properties are used for deriving entropic uncertainty relations. Applications of mutually unbiased measurements in entanglement detection are also revisited. First, we estimate from above the sum of the indices of coincidence for several mutually unbiased measurements. Further, we derive entropic uncertainty relations in terms of the Rényi and Tsallis entropies. Both the state-dependent and state-independent formulations are obtained. Using the two sets of local mutually unbiased measurements, a method of en…
We prove tight entropic uncertainty relations for a large number of mutually unbiased measurements. In particular, we show that a bound derived from the result by Maassen and Uffink for 2 such measurements can in fact be tight for up to sqrt{d} measurements in mutually unbiased bases. We then show that using more mutually unbiased bases does not always lead to a better locking effect. We prove that the optimal bound for the accessible information using up to sqrt{d} specific mutually unbiased bases is log d/2, which is the same as can be achieved by using only two bases. Our result indicates t…
We present a systematic method to introduce free parameters in sets of mutually unbiased bases. In particular, we demonstrate that any set of m real mutually unbiased bases in dimension N>2 admits the introduction of (m-1)N/2 free parameters which cannot be absorbed by a global unitary operation. As consequence, there are m=k+1 mutually unbiased bases in every dimension N=k^2 with k^3/2 free parameters, where k is even. We construct the maximal set of triplets of mutually unbiased bases for two-qubits systems and triplets, quadruplets and quintuplets of mutually unbiased bases with free parame…
We investigate the $l_{1}$ norm of coherence of quantum states in mutually unbiased bases. We find that the sum of squared $l_{1}$ norm of coherence of the mixed state single qubit is less than two. We derive the $l_{1}$ norm of coherence of three classes of $X$ states in nontrivial mutually unbiased bases for $4$-dimensional Hilbert space is equal. We proposed "autotensor of mutually unbiased basis(AMUB)" by the tensor of mutually unbiased bases, and depict the level surface of constant the sum of the $l_{1}$ norm of coherence of Bell-diagonal states in AMUB. We find the $l_{1}$ norm of coher…
We rephrase the Wootters-Fields construction [Ann. Phys., {\bf 191}, 363 (1989)] of a full set of mutually unbiased bases in a complex vector space of dimensions $N=p^r$, where $p$ is an odd prime, in terms of the character vectors of the cyclic group $G$ of order $p$. This form may be useful in explicitly writing down mutually unbiased bases for $N=p^r$.
The density matrix of a qudit may be reconstructed with optimal efficiency if the expectation values of a specific set of observables are known. In dimension six, the required observables only exist if it is possible to identify six mutually unbiased complex 6x6 Hadamard matrices. Prescribing a first Hadamard matrix, we construct all others mutually unbiased to it, using algebraic computations performed by a computer program. We repeat this calculation many times, sampling all known complex Hadamard matrices, and we never find more than two that are mutually unbiased. This result adds consider…
Finding all the mutually unbiased bases in various dimensions is a problem of fundamental interest in quantum information theory and pure mathematics. The general problem formulated in finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces is open. In the categorical approach to quantum mechanics one can find examples of categories which behave ``like'' the category of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces in various ways but are subtly different. One such category is the category of sets and relations, $\mathbf{Rel}$. One can formulate the concept of mutually unbiased bases here as well. In this note we classify all …
Semi-quantum key distribution is traditionally based on two-level quantum systems. In this paper, an unconditional security of a semi quantum key distribution protocol based on higher-dimensional systems using various mutually unbiased bases is presented. We first consider the three dimensional case using three and four mutually unbiased bases and derive a lower bound for the key rate as a function of the quantum channel's noise. We then generalize the result to a semi-quantum key distribution protocol that employs different number of mutually unbiased bases for four-dimensional states. It is …
Quantum systems with variables in ${\mathbb Z}(d)$ are considered. The properties of lines in the ${\mathbb Z}(d)\times {\mathbb Z}(d)$ phase space of these systems, are studied. Weak mutually unbiased bases in these systems are defined as bases for which the overlap of any two vectors in two different bases, is equal to $d^{-1/2}$ or alternatively to one of the $d_i^{-1/2},0$ (where $d_i$ is a divisor of $d$ apart from $d,1$). They are designed for the geometry of the ${\mathbb Z}(d)\times {\mathbb Z}(d)$ phase space, in the sense that there is a duality between the weak mutually unbiased bas…
The thesis is mainly about the construction and implementation of cyclic mutually unbiased bases, dealing with different entanglement structures by discussing the related group structures. A recursive construction for Fermat number dimensions is given and related to Wiedemann's conjecture for systems with more than 2048 qubits. The second part of the thesis analyses a quantum public-key encryption scheme.
We study a quantum process reconstruction based on the use of mutually unbiased projectors (MUB-projectors) as input states for a D-dimensional quantum system, with D being a power of a prime number. This approach connects the results of quantum-state tomography using mutually unbiased bases (MUB) with the coefficients of a quantum process, expanded in terms of MUB-projectors. We also study the performance of the reconstruction scheme against random errors when measuring probabilities at the MUB-projectors.
The question of determining the maximal number of mutually unbiased bases in dimension six has received much attention since their introduction to quantum information theory, but a definitive answer has still not been found. In this paper we move away from the traditional analytic approach and use a numerical approach to attempt to determine this number. We numerically minimise a non-negative function of a set of N+1 orthonormal bases in dimension d which only evaluates to zero if the bases are mutually unbiased. As a result we find strong evidence that (as has been conjectured elsewhere) ther…
We develop a new technique to construct mutually unbiased tripartite absolutely maximally entangled bases. We first explore the tripartite absolutely maximally entangled bases and mutually unbiased bases in $\mathbb{C}^{d} \otimes \mathbb{C}^{d} \otimes \mathbb{C}^{d}$ based on mutually orthogonal Latin squares. Then we generalize the approach to the case of $\mathbb{C}^{d_{1}} \otimes \mathbb{C}^{d_{2}} \otimes \mathbb{C}^{d_{1}d_{2}}$ by mutually weak orthogonal Latin squares. The concise direct constructions of mutually unbiased tripartite absolutely maximally entangled bases are remarkably…
The task of measuring in two mutually unbiased bases is central to many quantum information protocols, as well as being of fundamental interest. Increasingly, there is an experimental focus on generating and controlling high-dimensional photonic states. One approach is to use the arrival time of a photon, which can be split into discrete time bins. An important problem associated with such states is the difficulty in experimentally realizing a measurement that is mutually unbiased with respect to the time-of-arrival. We propose a simple and compact scheme to measure in both the time of arrival…
Mutually unbiased bases of a Hilbert space can be constructed by partitioning a unitary error basis. We consider this construction when the unitary error basis is a nice error basis. We show that the number of resulting mutually unbiased bases can be at most one plus the smallest prime power contained in the dimension, and therefore that this construction cannot improve upon previous approaches. We prove this by establishing a correspondence between nice mutually unbiased bases and abelian subgroups of the index group of a nice error basis and then bounding the number of such subgroups. This b…
Unextendible sets of Mutually Unbiased Bases (MUBs) are examined from the point of view of complementary subalgebras. We show, that the linear span of less than $d+1$ factors of $M_d \otimes M_d$ does not contain pure states, and therefore some complementary decompositions give rise to undextendable sets of MUBs. We provide some new complementary decompositions, and thus prove strong unextendibility of some set of MUBs.
We investigate correlations among complementary observables. In particular, we show how to take advantage of mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) for the efficient detection of entanglement in arbitrarily high-dimensional, multipartite and continuous variable quantum systems. The introduced entanglement criteria are relatively easy to implement experimentally since they require only a few local measurement settings. In addition, we establish a link between the separability problem and the maximum number of mutually unbiased bases -- opening a new avenue in this long-standing open problem.
In a quantum system having a finite number $N$ of orthogonal states, two orthonormal bases $\{a_i\}$ and $\{b_j\}$ are called mutually unbiased if all inner products $<a_i|b_j>$ have the same modulus $1/\sqrt{N}$. This concept appears in several quantum information problems. The number of pairwise mutually unbiased bases is at most $N+1$ and various constructions of $N+1$ such bases have been found when $N$ is a power of a prime number. We study families of formulas that generalize these constructions to arbitrary dimensions using finite rings.We then prove that there exists a set of $N+1$ mut…
We employ a straightforward relation between mutually unbiased and Bell bases to extend the latter in terms of a direct construction for the former. We analyze in detail the properties of these new generalized Bell states, showing that they constitute an appropriate tool for testing entanglement in bipartite multiqudit systems.
This is a review of the problem of Mutually Unbiased Bases in finite dimensional Hilbert spaces, real and complex. Also a geometric measure of "mubness" is introduced, and applied to some recent calculations in six dimensions (partly done by Bjorck and by Grassl). Although this does not yet solve any problem, some appealing structures emerge.
We study entanglement witness and present a construction of entanglement witnesses in terms of the mutually unbiased measurements (MUMs). These witnesses include the entanglement witnesses constructed from mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) as a special case. Comparing with the dimension dependence of MUBs, the witnesses can be always constructed from a complete set of $d+1$ MUMs for any dimension $d$. We show that our witness can detect entanglement better than previous separability criterion given also by MUMs. And the approach can be experimentally implemented.
We present a new quantum communication complexity protocol, the promise--Quantum Random Access Code, which allows us to introduce a new measure of unbiasedness for bases of Hilbert spaces. The proposed measure possesses a clear operational meaning and can be used to investigate whether a specific number of mutually unbiased bases exist in a given dimension by employing Semi--Definite Programming techniques.
We generalize the notion of unextendible maximally entangled basis from bipartite systems to multipartite quantum systems. It is proved that there do not exist unextendible maximally entangled bases in three-qubit systems. Moreover,two types of unextendible maximally entangled bases are constructed in tripartite quantum systems and proved to be not mutually unbiased.
In order to describe the right setting to handle Zauner's conjecture on mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) (saying that in $\mathbb{C}^d$, a set of MUBs of the theoretical maximal size $d + 1$ exists only if $d$ is a prime power), we pose some fundamental questions which naturally arise. Some of these questions have important consequences for the construction theory of (new) sets of maximal MUBs.
We tabulate bounds on the optimal number of mutually unbiased bases in R^d. For most dimensions d, it can be shown with relatively simple methods that either there are no real orthonormal bases that are mutually unbiased or the optimal number is at most either 2 or 3. We discuss the limitations of these methods when applied to all dimensions, shedding some light on the difficulty of obtaining tight bounds for the remaining dimensions that have the form d=16n^2, where n can be any number. We additionally give a simpler, alternative proof that there can be at most d/2+1 real mutually unbiased ba…
We derive uncertainty relation inequalities according to the mutually unbiased measurements. Based on the calculation of the index of coincidence of probability distribution given by $d+1$ MUMs on any density operator $ρ$ in $\mathbb{C}^{d}$, both state-dependent and state-independent forms of lower entropic bounds are given. Furthermore, we formulate uncertainty relations for MUMs in terms of Rényi and Tsallis entropies.
Mutually unbiased measurements (MUMs) are generalized from the concept of mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) and include the complete set of MUBs as a special case, but they are superior to MUBs as they do not need to be rank one projectors. We investigate entanglement detection using sets of MUMs and derived separability criteria for $d$-dimensional multipartite systems, and arbitrary high-dimensional bipartitie and multipartite systems. These criteria provide experimental implementation in detecting entanglement of unknown quantum states.
We study unextendible maximally entangled basis in arbitrary bipartite spaces. A systematic way of constructing a set of $d^{2}$ orthonormal maximally entangled states in $\mathbb{C}^{d}\bigotimes\mathbb{C}^{d'}(\frac{d'}{2}<d<d')$ is provided. The complementary space of the set of these $d^{2}$ orthonormal maximally entangled states contains no maximally entangled states that are orthogonal to all of them. Furthermore, we investigate mutually unbiased bases in which all the bases are unextendible maximally entangled ones. We present two unextendible maximally entangled bases in $\mathbb{C}^{2…
We generalize the concept of mutually unbiased bases (MUB) to measurements which are not necessarily described by rank one projectors. As such, these measurements can be a useful tool to study the long standing problem of the existence of MUB. We derive their general form, and show that in a finite, $d$-dimensional Hilbert space, one can construct a complete set of $d+1$ mutually unbiased measurements. Beside of their intrinsic link to MUB, we show, that these measurements' statistics provide complete information about the state of the system. Moreover, they capture the physical essence of unb…
One of the essential features of quantum mechanics is that most pairs of observables cannot be measured simultaneously. This phenomenon is most strongly manifested when observables are related to mutually unbiased bases. In this paper, we shed some light on the connection between mutually unbiased bases and another essential feature of quantum mechanics, quantum entanglement. It is shown that a complete set of mutually unbiased bases of a bipartite system contains a fixed amount of entanglement, independently of the choice of the set. This has implications for entanglement distribution among t…
Mutual unbiasedness of the eigenstates of phase-space operators-such as position and momentum, or their standard coarse grained versions-exists only in the limiting case of infinite squeezing. In [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 040403 (2018)] it was shown that mutual unbiasedness can be recovered for periodic coarse grainings of these two operators. Here we investigate mutual unbiasedness of coarse-grained measurements for more than two phase-space variables. We show that mutual unbiasedness can be recovered between periodic coarse graining of any two non-parallel phase-space operators. We illustrate t…
An efficient method for assessing the quality of quantum state tomography is developed. Special attention is paid to the tomography of multipartite systems in terms of unbiased measurements. Although the overall reconstruction errors of different sets of mutually unbiased bases are the same, differences appear when particular aspects of the measured system are contemplated. This point is illustrated by estimating the fidelities of genuinely tripartite entangled states.
An uncertainty relation is introduced for a symmetric arrangement of three mutually unbiased bases in continuous variable phase space, and then used to derive a bipartite entanglement criterion based on the variance of global operators composed of these three phase space variables. We test this criterion using spatial variables of photon pairs, and show that the entangled photons are correlated in three pairs of bases.
We consider particular entanglement of two particles whose state vectors are in bases that are mutually unbiased (MUB), i.e. "that exhibit maximum degree of incompatibility" (J.Schwinger,Nat. Ac. Sci. (USA), 1960)). We use this link between entanglement and MUB to outline a protocol for secure key distribution among the parties that share these entangled states. The analysis leads to an association of entangled states and states in an MUB set: both carry the same labels.
We propose a new method for implementing mutually unbiased generation and measurement of time-bin qudits using a cascade of electro-optic phase modulator -- coded fiber Bragg grating pairs. Our approach requires only a single spatial mode and can switch rapidly between basis choices. We obtain explicit solutions for dimensions $d=2,3,4$ that realize all $d+1$ possible mutually unbiased bases and analyze the performance of our approach in quantum key distribution. Given its practicality and compatibility with current technology, our approach provides a promising springboard for scalable process…
The number of measurements necessary to perform the quantum state reconstruction of a system of qubits grows exponentially with the number of constituents, creating a major obstacle for the design of scalable tomographic schemes. We work out a simple and efficient method based on cyclic generation of mutually unbiased bases. The basic generator requires only Hadamard and controlled-phase gates, which are available in most practical realizations of these systems. We show how complete sets of mutually unbiased bases with different entanglement structures can be realized for three and four qubits…
We provide a class of entanglement witnesses constructed in terms of Mutually Unbiased Bases (MUBs). This construction reproduces many well-known examples like the celebrated reduction map and Choi map together with its generalizations. We illustrated our construction by the detailed analysis of the 3-dimensional case: in this case, one obtains a family of entanglement witnesses parameterized by an L-dimensional torus (L = 2,3,4 being a number of MUBs used in the construction).
