New Construction of Mutually Unbiased Bases in Square Dimensions

We show that k=w+2 mutually unbiased bases can be constructed in any square dimension d=s^2 provided that there are w mutually orthogonal Latin squares of order s. The construction combines the design-theoretic objects (k,s)-nets (which can be constructed from w mutually orthogonal Latin squares of order s and vice versa) and generalized Hadamard matrices of size s. Using known lower bounds on the asymptotic growth of the number of mutually orthogonal Latin squares (based on number theoretic sieving techniques), we obtain that the number of mutually unbiased bases in dimensions d=s^2 is greater than s^1/14.8 for all s but finitely many exceptions. Furthermore, our construction gives more mutually orthogonal bases in many non-prime-power dimensions than the construction that reduces the problem to prime power dimensions.Comment: 10 page

Remark on multi-particle observables and entangled states with constant complexity

We show that every density matrix of an n-particle system prepared by a quantum network of constant depth is asymptotically commuting with the mean-field observables. We introduce certain pairs of hypersurfaces in the space of density matrices and give lower bounds for the depth of a network which prepares states lying outside those pairs. The measurement of an observable which is not asymptotically commuting with the mean-field observables requires a network of depth in the order of log n, if one demands the measurement to project the state into the eigenspace of the measured observable.Comment: 7 pages, Revte

Quantum algorithm for finding periodicities in the spectrum of a black-box Hamiltonian or unitary transformation

Estimating the eigenvalues of a unitary transformation U by standard phase estimation requires the implementation of controlled-U-gates which are not available if U is only given as a black box. We show that a simple trick allows to measure eigenvalues of U\otimes U^\dagger even in this case. Running the algorithm several times allows therefore to estimate the autocorrelation function of the density of eigenstates of U. This can be applied to find periodicities in the energy spectrum of a quantum system with unknown Hamiltonian if it can be coupled to a quantum computer.Comment: 3 pages, revte

The 2-local Hamiltonian problem encompasses NP

We show that the NP complete problems MAX CUT and INDEPENDENT SET can be formulated as the 2-local Hamiltonian problem as defined by Kitaev. He introduced the quantum complexity class BQNP as the quantum analog of NP, and showed that the 5-local Hamiltonian problem is BQNP-complete. It is not known whether the s-local Hamiltonian problem is BQNP-complete for s smaller than 5. Therefore it is interesting to determine what problems can be reduced to the s-local Hamiltonian problem. Kitaev showed that 3-SAT can be formulated as a 3-local Hamiltonian problem. We extend his result by showing that 2-locality is sufficient in order to encompass NP.Comment: 7 page

Polynomial-Time Solution to the Hidden Subgroup Problem for a Class of non-abelian Groups

We present a family of non-abelian groups for which the hidden subgroup problem can be solved efficiently on a quantum computer.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX2e, 3 figure

Quasi-order of clocks and synchronism and quantum bounds for copying timing information

The statistical state of any (classical or quantum) system with non-trivial time evolution can be interpreted as the pointer of a clock. The quality of such a clock is given by the statistical distinguishability of its states at different times. If a clock is used as a resource for producing another one the latter can at most have the quality of the resource. We show that this principle, formalized by a quasi-order, implies constraints on many physical processes. Similarly, the degree to which two (quantum or classical) clocks are synchronized can be formalized by a quasi-order of synchronism. Copying timing information is restricted by quantum no-cloning and no-broadcasting theorems since classical clocks can only exist in the limit of infinite energy. We show this quantitatively by comparing the Fisher timing information of two output systems to the input's timing information. For classical signal processing in the quantum regime our results imply that a signal looses its localization in time if it is amplified and distributed to many devices.Comment: 13 pages, revtex, 1 figur

A Note on Non-Additive Quantum Codes

A method to combine two quantum error-correcting codes is presented. Even when starting with additive codes, the resulting code might be non-additive. Furthermore, the notion of the erasure space is introduced which gives a full characterisation of the erasure-correcting capabilities of the codes. For the special case that the two codes are unitary images of each other, the erasure space and the pure erasure space of the resulting code can be calculated.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, no figures, preliminary repor

Quantum noise influencing human behaviour could fake effectiveness of drugs in clinical trials

To test the effectiveness of a drug one can advice two randomly selected groups of patients to take or not to take it, respectively. It is well-known that the causal effect cannot be identified if not all patients comply. This holds even when the non-compliers can be identified afterwards since latent factors like patient's personality can influence both his decision and his physical response. However, one can still give bounds on the effectiveness of the drug depending on the rate of compliance. Remarkably, the proofs of these bounds given in the literature rely on models that represent all relevant latent factors (including noise) by hidden classical variables. In strong analogy to the violation of Bell's inequality, some of these bounds fail if patient's behavior is influenced by latent quantum processes (e.g. in his nervous system). Quantum effects could fake an increase of the recovery rate by about 13% although the drug would hurt as many patients as it would help if everyone took it. The other bounds are true even in the quantum case. We do not present any realistic model showing this effect, we only point out that the physics of decision making could be relevant for the causal interpretation of every-day life statistical data.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

Quantum circuits for single-qubit measurements corresponding to platonic solids

Each platonic solid defines a single-qubit positive operator valued measure (POVM) by interpreting its vertices as points on the Bloch sphere. We construct simple circuits for implementing this kind of measurements and other simple types of symmetric POVMs on one qubit. Each implementation consists of a discrete Fourier transform and some elementary quantum operations followed by an orthogonal measurement in the computational basis.Comment: 24 pages, Latex, 15 figure

Quantum BCH Codes

After a brief introduction to both quantum computation and quantum error correction, we show how to construct quantum error-correcting codes based on classical BCH codes. With these codes, decoding can exploit additional information about the position of errors. This error model - the quantum erasure channel - is discussed. Finally, parameters of quantum BCH codes are provided