Mutually unbiased unitary bases of operators on d-dimensional hilbert space

Abstract

Analogous to the notion of mutually unbiased bases for Hilbert spaces, we consider mutually unbiased unitary bases (MUUBs) for the space of operators, [Formula: see text], acting on such Hilbert spaces. The notion of MUUB reflects the equiprobable guesses of unitary operators in one basis of [Formula: see text] when estimating a unitary operator in another. Though, for prime dimension [Formula: see text], the maximal number of MUUBs is known to be [Formula: see text], there is no known recipe for constructing them, assuming they exist. However, one can always construct a minimum of three MUUBs, and the maximal number is approached for very large values of [Formula: see text]. MUUBs can also exist for some [Formula: see text]-dimensional subspace of [Formula: see text] with the maximal number being [Formula: see text].