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arXiv:2509.17261 · Mathematics

Equivalence Relations Between Conical 2-Designs and Mutually Unbiased Generalized Equiangular Tight Frames

Katarzyna Siudzińska

Published Dec 29, 2025• 3 citations
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Abstract

Quantum measurements play a fundamental role in quantum information. Therefore, increasing efforts are being made to construct symmetric measurement operators for qudit systems. A wide class of projective measurements corresponds to complex projective 2-designs, which include symmetric, informationally complete (SIC) POVMs and mutually unbiased bases (MUBs). In this paper, we establish a one-to-one correspondence between conical 2-designs and mutually unbiased generalized equiangular tight frames, both of which are common generalizations of SIC POVMs and MUBs to operators of arbitrary rank. It turns out that there exist rich families of operators that belong to only one of those two classes. This raises important questions about which symmetries have to be preserved for applicational prominence.

DOI
10.3390/math14010128

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Quantum measurements play a fundamental role in quantum information. Therefore, increasing efforts are being made to construct symmetric measurement operators for qudit systems. A wide class of projective measurements corresponds to complex projective 2-designs, which include symmetric, informationally complete (SIC) POVMs and mutually unbiased bases (MUBs). In this paper, we establish a one-to-one correspondence between conical 2-designs and mutually unbiased generalized equiangular tight frames, both of which are common generalizations of SIC POVMs and MUBs to operators of arbitrary rank. It turns out that there exist rich families of operators that belong to only one of those two classes. This raises important questions about which symmetries have to be preserved for applicational prominence.
Abstract Informationally overcomplete measurements find important applications in quantum tomography and quantum state estimation. The most popular are maximal sets of mutually unbiased bases, for which trace relations between measurement operators are well known. In this paper, we introduce a more general class of informationally overcomplete positive, operator-valued measure (POVMs) that are generated by equiangular tight frames of arbitrary rank. This class provides a generalization of equiangular measurements to non-projective POVMs, which include rescaled mutually unbiased measurements and bases. We provide a method of their construction, analyze their symmetry properties, and provide examples for highly symmetric cases. In particular, we find a wide class of generalized equiangular measurements that are conical two-designs, which allows us to derive the index of coincidence. Our results show benefits of considering a single informationally overcomplete measurement over informationally complete collections of POVMs.
The principle of complementarity lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. In finite dimensional quantum systems this principle is captured by pairs of observables which are given by mutually unbiased bases (MUBs). Two orthonormal bases B and C of Cd are mutually unbiased if |<b|c>|2 = 1/d holds for all vectors b ∈ B and c ∈ C. This implies that whenever we are given a vector from one of these bases and perform a measurement with respect to any other of the bases, then there is no information gained from this measurement. A basic question about MUBs is how many of them can be found in a given dimension d. While constructions of maximal sets of d+1 such bases are known for system of prime power dimension d, it is unknown whether this bound can be achieved for any non-prime power dimension. We review the known constructions of MUBs and demonstrate that maximal sets of MUBs come with a rich combinatorial structure by showing that they actually are the same objects as the complex projective 2-designs with angle set {0,1/d}. Furthermore, we address the problem of constructing positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) in finite dimension d consisting of d2 operators of rank one which have an inner product equal to uniform or very close to uniform. This is motivated by the related question of constructing symmetric informationally complete POVMs (SIC-POVMs) for which the inner products are perfectly uniform. We also give a simple proof of the fact that symmetric informationally complete POVMs are complex projective 2-designs with angle set {1/(d+1)}. Moreover, we show that MUBs and SIC-POVMs form uniform tight frames in Cd.
Complex projective t-designs, particularly SICs and full sets of MUBs, play an important role in quantum information. We introduce a generalization which we call conical t-designs. They include arbitrary rank symmetric informationally complete measurements (SIMs) and full sets of arbitrary rank mutually unbiased measurements (MUMs). They are deeply implicated in the description of entanglement (as we show in a subsequent paper). Viewed in one way a conical 2-design is a symmetric decomposition of a separable Werner state (up to a normalization factor). Viewed in another way it is a certain kind of polytope in the Bloch body. In the Bloch body picture SIMs and full sets of MUMs form highly symmetric polytopes (a single regular simplex in the one case; the convex hull of a set of orthogonal regular simplices in the other). We give the necessary and sufficient conditions for an arbitrary polytope to be what we call a homogeneous conical 2-design. This suggests a way to search for new kinds of projective 2-design.
Abstract Complex projective t -designs, particularly sic s and full sets of mutually unbiased bases, play an important role in quantum information. We introduce a generalization which we call conical t -designs. They include arbitrary rank symmetric informationally complete measurements ( sim s) and full sets of arbitrary rank mutually unbiased measurements ( mum s). They are deeply implicated in the description of entanglement (as we show in a subsequent paper). Viewed in one way a conical two-design is a symmetric decomposition of a separable Werner state (up to a normalization factor). Viewed in another way it is a certain kind of polytope in the Bloch body. In the Bloch body picture sim s and full sets of mum s form highly symmetric polytopes (a single regular simplex in the one case; the convex hull of a set of orthogonal regular simplices in the other). We give the necessary and sufficient conditions for an arbitrary polytope to be what we call a homogeneous conical two-design. This suggests a way to search for new kinds of projective two-design.
Abstract We introduce a generalization of symmetric measurements to collections of unequinumerous positive, operator-valued measures (POVMs). This provides a uniform description of objects that are more general than symmetric, informationally complete POVMs and mutually unbiased bases, but at the same time less destructive and more noise tolerant. For informationally complete sets, we propose construction methods from orthonormal Hermitian operator bases. The correspondence between operator bases and measurements can be as high as one-to-four, with a one-to-one correspondence following only under additional assumptions. Importantly, it turns out that some of the symmetry properties, lost in the process of generalization, can be recovered without fixing the same number of elements for all POVMs. In particular, for a wide class of unequinumerous symmetric measurements that are conical 2-designs, we derive the index of coincidence, entropic uncertainty relations, and separability criteria for bipartite quantum states.
Conical 2-designs are families of positive operators possessing crucial symmetry properties that allow them to efficiently characterize important quantum measures. However, little is known about their general structures and properties. We propose a construction method of conical 2-designs whose elements are not of equal traces, based on a generalization of equiangular weighted frames to non-projective operators. We provide a detailed analysis of their properties, relations to quantum measurements, and applications, together with examples that go beyond the known classes. This constitutes a major step toward a full characterization of informationally overcomplete quantum measurements.