Abstract algebra, projective geometry and time encoding of quantum information

Algebraic geometrical concepts are playing an increasing role in quantum applications such as coding, cryptography, tomography and computing. We point out here the prominent role played by Galois fields viewed as cyclotomic extensions of the integers modulo a prime characteristic $p$. They can be used to generate efficient cyclic encoding, for transmitting secrete quantum keys, for quantum state recovery and for error correction in quantum computing. Finite projective planes and their generalization are the geometric counterpart to cyclotomic concepts, their coordinatization involves Galois fields, and they have been used repetitively for enciphering and coding. Finally the characters over Galois fields are fundamental for generating complete sets of mutually unbiased bases, a generic concept of quantum information processing and quantum entanglement. Gauss sums over Galois fields ensure minimum uncertainty under such protocols. Some Galois rings which are cyclotomic extensions of the integers modulo 4 are also becoming fashionable for their role in time encoding and mutual unbiasedness.Comment: To appear in R. Buccheri, A.C. Elitzur and M. Saniga (eds.), "Endophysics, Time, Quantum and the Subjective," World Scientific, Singapore. 16 page

On Some Dynamical Systems in Finite Fields and Residue Rings

We use character sums to confirm several recent conjectures of V. I. Arnold on the uniformity of distribution properties of a certain dynamical system in a finite field. On the other hand, we show that some conjectures are wrong. We also analyze several other conjectures of V. I. Arnold related to the orbit length of similar dynamical systems in residue rings and outline possible ways to prove them. We also show that some of them require further tuning