A discussion of discrete Wigner functions in phase space related to mutually unbiased bases is presented. This approach requires mathematical assumptions which limits it to systems with density matrices defined on complex Hilbert spaces of dimension pn where p is a prime number. With this limitation it is possible to define a phase space and Wigner functions in close analogy to the continuous case. That is, we use a phase space that is a direct sum of n two-dimensional vector spaces each containing p2 points. This is in contrast to the more usual choice of a two-dimensional phase space containing p2n points. A useful aspect of this approach is that we can relate complete separability of density matrices and their Wigner functions in a natural way. We discuss this in detail for bipartite systems and present the generalization to arbitrary numbers of subsystems when p is odd. Special attention is required for two qubits (p=2) and our technique fails to establish the separability property for more than two qubits.
A discussion of discrete Wigner functions in phase space related to mutually unbiased bases is presented. This approach requires mathematical assumptions, which limits it to systems with density matrices defined on complex Hilbert spaces of dimension p n where p is a prime number. With this limitation, it is possible to define a phase space and Wigner functions in close analogy to the continuous case. That is, we use a phase space that is a direct sum of n two-dimensional vector spaces each containing p 2 points. This is in contrast to the more usual choice of a two-dimensional phase space containing p 2 n points. A useful aspect of this approach is that we can relate complete separability of density matrices and their Wigner functions in a natural way. We discuss this in detail for bipartite systems and present the generalization to arbitrary numbers of subsystems when p is odd. Special attention is required for two qubits ( p = 2) and our technique fails to establish the separability property for more than two qubits. Finally, we give a brief discussion of Hamiltonian dynamics in the language developed in the paper.
It is known that there exists 2N+ 1 mutually unbiased bases for N qubits system. Between the different MUB construction algorithms of the three-qubit case, we focus on Wootters method with discrete phase space that leads naturally to a complete set of 2N+ 1 mutually unbiased bases for the state space. We construct discrete Wigner function using mutually unbiased bases from the discrete phase space for three-qubit system by explicitly calculating the Wigner functions for exemplary three-qubit pure states such as the GHZ state, the W state and the embedded Bell state. We also highlight some quasi-probability characteristics of these entangled states.
A few simply stated rules govern the entanglement patterns that can occur in mutually unbiased basis sets (MUBs) and constrain the combinations of such patterns that can coexist in full complements of MUBs. We consider Hilbert spaces of prime power dimensions (
D=pN), as realized by systems of
N prime-state particles, where full complements of
D+1 MUBs are known to exist, and we assume only that MUBs are eigenbases of generalized Pauli operators, without using any particular construction. The general rules include the following: (1) In any MUB, a given particle appears either in a pure state or totally entangled and (2) in any full MUB complement, each particle is pure in (
p+1) bases (not necessarily the same ones) and totally entangled in the remaining (${p}^{N}\ensuremath{-}p$). It follows that the maximum number of product bases is
p+1 and, when this number is realized, all remaining (${p}^{N}\ensuremath{-}p$) bases in the complement are characterized by the total entanglement of every particle. This ``standard distribution'' is inescapable for two-particle systems (of any
p), where only product and generalized Bell bases are admissible MUB types. This and the following results generalize previous results for qubits [Phys. Rev. A 65. 032320 (2002); Phys. Rev. A 72, 062310 (2005)] and qutrits [Phys. Rev. A 70, 012302 (2004)], drawing particularly upon [Phys. Rev. A 72, 062310 (2005)]. With three particles there are three MUB types, and these may be combined in (
p+2) different ways to form full complements. With
N=4, there are 6 MUB types for
p=2, but new MUB types become possible with larger
p, and these are essential to realizing full complements. With this example, we argue that new MUB types that show new entanglement patterns should enter with every step in
N and, also, when
N is a prime plus 1, at a critical
p value, $p=N\ensuremath{-}1$. Such MUBs should play critical roles in filling complements.
Mutually unbiased bases for quantum degrees of freedom are central to all theoretical investigations and practical exploitations of complementary properties. Much is known about mutually unbiased bases, but there are also a fair number of important questions that have not been answered in full as yet. In particular, one can find maximal sets of N + 1 mutually unbiased bases in Hilbert spaces of prime-power dimension N = p M , with p prime and M a positive integer, and there is a continuum of mutually unbiased bases for a continuous degree of freedom, such as motion along a line. But not a single example of a maximal set is known if the dimension is another composite number (N = 6, 10, 12,…). In this review, we present a unified approach in which the basis states are labeled by numbers 0, 1, 2, …, N - 1 that are both elements of a Galois field and ordinary integers. This dual nature permits a compact systematic construction of maximal sets of mutually unbiased bases when they are known to exist but throws no light on the open existence problem in other cases. We show how to use the thus constructed mutually unbiased bases in quantum-informatics applications, including dense coding, teleportation, entanglement swapping, covariant cloning, and state tomography, all of which rely on an explicit set of maximally entangled states (generalizations of the familiar two–q-bit Bell states) that are related to the mutually unbiased bases. There is a link to the mathematics of finite affine planes. We also exploit the one-to-one correspondence between unbiased bases and the complex Hadamard matrices that turn the bases into each other. The ultimate hope, not yet fulfilled, is that open questions about mutually unbiased bases can be related to open questions about Hadamard matrices or affine planes, in particular the notorious existence problem for dimensions that are not a power of a prime. The Hadamard-matrix approach is instrumental in the very recent advance, surveyed here, of our understanding of the N = 6 situation. All evidence indicates that a maximal set of seven mutually unbiased bases does not exist — one can find no more than three pairwise unbiased bases — although there is currently no clear-cut demonstration of the case.
The original Wigner function provides a way of representing in phase space the quantum states of systems with continuous degrees of freedom. Wigner functions have also been developed for discrete quantum systems, one popular version being defined on a $2N\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2N$ discrete phase space for a system with
N orthogonal states. Here we investigate an alternative class of discrete Wigner functions, in which the field of real numbers that labels the axes of continuous phase space is replaced by a finite field having
N elements. There exists such a field if and only if
N is a power of a prime; so our formulation can be applied directly only to systems for which the state-space dimension takes such a value. Though this condition may seem limiting, we note that any quantum computer based on qubits meets the condition and can thus be accommodated within our scheme. The geometry of our $N\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}N$ phase space also leads naturally to a method of constructing a complete set of
N+1 mutually unbiased bases for the state space.