Multiple Qubits as Symplectic Polar Spaces of Order Two

It is surmised that the algebra of the Pauli operators on the Hilbert space of N-qubits is embodied in the geometry of the symplectic polar space of rank N and order two, W_{2N - 1}(2). The operators (discarding the identity) answer to the points of W_{2N - 1}(2), their partitionings into maximally commuting subsets correspond to spreads of the space, a maximally commuting subset has its representative in a maximal totally isotropic subspace of W_{2N - 1}(2) and, finally, "commuting" translates into "collinear" (or "perpendicular").Comment: 2 pages, no figur

Mutually unbiased bases and discrete Wigner functions

Mutually unbiased bases and discrete Wigner functions are closely, but not uniquely related. Such a connection becomes more interesting when the Hilbert space has a dimension that is a power of a prime $N=d^n$, which describes a composite system of $n$ qudits. Hence, entanglement naturally enters the picture. Although our results are general, we concentrate on the simplest nontrivial example of dimension $N=8=2^3$. It is shown that the number of fundamentally different Wigner functions is severely limited if one simultaneously imposes translational covariance and that the generating operators consist of rotations around two orthogonal axes, acting on the individual qubits only.Comment: 9 pages, 6 tables, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, special issue on Optical Quantum Information Scienc

Geometrical approach to mutually unbiased bases

We propose a unifying phase-space approach to the construction of mutually unbiased bases for a two-qubit system. It is based on an explicit classification of the geometrical structures compatible with the notion of unbiasedness. These consist of bundles of discrete curves intersecting only at the origin and satisfying certain additional properties. We also consider the feasible transformations between different kinds of curves and show that they correspond to local rotations around the Bloch-sphere principal axes. We suggest how to generalize the method to systems in dimensions that are powers of a prime.Comment: 10 pages. Some typos in the journal version have been correcte

Classicality in discrete Wigner functions

Gibbons et al. [Phys. Rev. A 70, 062101(2004)] have recently defined a class of discrete Wigner functions W to represent quantum states in a Hilbert space with finite dimension. We show that the only pure states having non-negative W for all such functions are stabilizer states, as conjectured by one of us [Phys. Rev. A 71, 042302 (2005)]. We also show that the unitaries preserving non-negativity of W for all definitions of W form a subgroup of the Clifford group. This means pure states with non-negative W and their associated unitary dynamics are classical in the sense of admitting an efficient classical simulation scheme using the stabilizer formalism.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur