Wigner symmetries single out symmetric Wasserstein distances in all finite dimensions

Abstract

We study the quantum Wasserstein distances of De Palma and Trevisan associated with quadratic costs generated by self-adjoint observables in arbitrary finite dimension. We first show that any positive semidefinite cost operator is determined by the corresponding distance on pairs of pure states. For nonzero observable-generated quadratic costs, we then prove that the full isometry monoid consists exactly of unitary and antiunitary conjugations if and only if the distance is invariant under unitary conjugations on pure states. These conditions are equivalent to isotropy of the cost on the traceless subspace. They are also equivalent to a geometric characterization: two states attain the Wasserstein diameter exactly when their supports are orthogonal. It already suffices to impose this condition on pairs of pure states. We construct explicit mutually inverse maps between observable-generated quadratic costs and Hilbert--Schmidt frame-type operators formed from the traceless parts of their generators. This correspondence also expresses the transport variational problem directly in terms of the frame operator. For every such cost $C$ on a $d$-dimensional Hilbert space, the minimal number of self-adjoint generators equals the rank of its recovered frame operator $Θ(C)$, and is therefore at most $d^2-1$. Nonzero isotropic costs require exactly $d^2-1$ generators, attaining the largest minimal generator number that any observable-generated quadratic cost can require. Their arbitrary generating families give tight frames, while their minimal realizations give scaled Hilbert--Schmidt orthonormal bases of the traceless subspace. These symmetry, frame, and diametral characterizations determine the same one-parameter family of quantum Wasserstein distances.