Mutually unbiased bases: common states, completion, and extension obstructions
Abstract
Which pure states give uniform outcomes in several mutually unbiased measurements, and when can they form another measurement basis? We distinguish common unbiased states, their orthonormal completion, and further extension. For a displayed phase-deformed Fourier pair in dimension 2m, a clock symmetry and skew antiunitary complete every prescribed common unbiased state to an explicit orthonormal basis. In dimension six, an amplitude-profile obstruction proves strong unextendibility of a given mutually unbiased triple when its original third-basis rays are invariant under the ternary clock. We give an exact nonproduct example and an application to a companion whose columns are localized at single Fourier frequencies. For every exact Hadamard matrix in a specified closed entrywise neighborhood of a fixed reference matrix, the coordinate and Hadamard bases have exactly 48 common unbiased rays but no third measurement basis, with a quantitative lower bound on the squared Gram defect of every six-column candidate. We also study auxiliary complex equations for common states, retaining algebraic multiplicities. For a flat unitary of order six with all 3×3 minors nonzero, the projective ray scheme is finite; each singular two-minor contributes two reduced isolated boundary points, and the affine coordinate algebra is finite-dimensional over ℂ. In every order, a critical-algebra identity preserves multiplicities; in dimension six it gives finiteness for a fixed phase fibre. Specialization over a discrete valuation ring controls complete reciprocal-orthogonal collections. A nonphysical Tao/Potts collection separates algebraic from physical solutions. These results do not determine the global maximum number of mutually unbiased bases or classify all triples.
Related
- Sharp Total-Support Uncertainty for the Standard Complete Set of Mutually Unbiased Bases
- More mutually unbiased bases
- Why three? A two-level system with four mutually unbiased questions
- Using topology to reveal all mutually unbiased bases in dimension six
- Stone profiniteness, reticulation spectra, and profinite-completion obstructions for residuated lattices
BibTeX
@misc{sun2026mutually,
title = {{Mutually unbiased bases: common states, completion, and extension obstructions}},
author = {Hao-Yu Sun},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.12180},
eprint = {2610.12180},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.12180},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Mutually unbiased bases: common states, completion, and extension obstructions
AU - Hao-Yu Sun
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.12180
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.12180
AB - Which pure states give uniform outcomes in several mutually unbiased measurements, and when can they form another measurement basis? We distinguish common unbiased states, their orthonormal completion, and further extension. For a displayed phase-deformed Fourier pair in dimension 2m, a clock symmetry and skew antiunitary complete every prescribed common unbiased state to an explicit orthonormal basis. In dimension six, an amplitude-profile obstruction proves strong unextendibility of a given mutually unbiased triple when its original third-basis rays are invariant under the ternary clock. We give an exact nonproduct example and an application to a companion whose columns are localized at single Fourier frequencies. For every exact Hadamard matrix in a specified closed entrywise neighborhood of a fixed reference matrix, the coordinate and Hadamard bases have exactly 48 common unbiased rays but no third measurement basis, with a quantitative lower bound on the squared Gram defect of every six-column candidate. We also study auxiliary complex equations for common states, retaining algebraic multiplicities. For a flat unitary of order six with all 3×3 minors nonzero, the projective ray scheme is finite; each singular two-minor contributes two reduced isolated boundary points, and the affine coordinate algebra is finite-dimensional over ℂ. In every order, a critical-algebra identity preserves multiplicities; in dimension six it gives finiteness for a fixed phase fibre. Specialization over a discrete valuation ring controls complete reciprocal-orthogonal collections. A nonphysical Tao/Potts collection separates algebraic from physical solutions. These results do not determine the global maximum number of mutually unbiased bases or classify all triples.
ER -