Recently, several intriguing conjectures have been proposed connecting symmetric informationally complete quantum measurements (SIC POVMs, or SICs) and algebraic number theory. These conjectures relate the SICs to their minimal defining algebraic number field. Testing or sharpening these conjectures requires that the SICs are expressed exactly, rather than as numerical approximations. While many exact solutions of SICs have been constructed previously using Gröbner bases, this method has probably been taken as far as is possible with current computer technology (except in special cases where there are additional symmetries). Here, we describe a method for converting high-precision numerical solutions into exact ones using an integer relation algorithm in conjunction with the Galois symmetries of an SIC. Using this method, we have calculated 69 new exact solutions, including nine new dimensions, where previously only numerical solutions were known—which more than triples the number of known exact solutions. In some cases, the solutions require number fields with degrees as high as 12 288. We use these solutions to confirm that they obey the number-theoretic conjectures, and address two questions suggested by the previous work.

Recently there has been much effort in the quantum information community to prove (or disprove) the existence of symmetric informationally complete (SIC) sets of quantum states in arbitrary finite dimension. This paper strengthens the urgency of this question by showing that if SIC-sets exist: (1) by a natural measure of orthonormality, they are as close to being an orthonormal basis for the space of density operators as possible; and (2) in prime dimensions, the standard construction for complete sets of mutually unbiased bases and Weyl-Heisenberg covariant SIC-sets are intimately related: The latter represent minimum uncertainty states for the former in the sense of Wootters and Sussman. Finally, we contribute to the question of existence by conjecturing a quadratic redundancy in the equations for Weyl-Heisenberg SIC-sets.

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.

For certain real quadratic fields $K$ with sufficiently small discriminant we produce explicit unit generators for specific ray class fields of $K$ using a numerical method that arose in the study of complete sets of equiangular lines in $\

We show that naturally associated to a SIC (symmetric informationally complete positive operator valued measure or SIC-POVM) in dimension d there are a number of higher dimensional structures: specifically a projector and complex Hadamard matrix in dimension d ² , and a pair of ETFs (equiangular tight frames) in dimensions . We also show that a WH (Weyl–Heisenberg covariant) SIC in odd dimension d is naturally associated to a pair of symmetric tight fusion frames in dimension d . We deduce two relaxations of the WH SIC existence problem. We also find a reformulation of the problem in which the number of equations is fewer than the number of variables. Finally, we show that in at least four cases the structures associated to a SIC lie on continuous manifolds of such structures. In two of these cases the manifolds are non-linear. Restricted defect calculations are consistent with this being true for the structures associated to every known SIC with d between 3 and 16, suggesting it may be true for all .