The defect of generalized Fourier matrices (Q1947129)

A complex Hadamard matrix is a square matrix with pairwise orthogonal rows and all its entries of absolute value \(1\). The set \(C_{N}\) of \(N\times N\) complex Hadamard matrices can be written in the form \(M_{N}(\mathbb{T} )\cap\sqrt{N}U_{N}\) (the intersection of the matrices with entries in the unit circle \(\mathbb{T}\) and a multiple of the unitary matrices). It is a real algebraic manifold with a very complicated structure. One example of a complex Hadamard matrix is the Fourier matrix \(F_{N}\) whose \((i,j)\)th entry is \(\omega^{ij}\) where \(\omega:=exp(2\pi i/N)\) and \(i,j\in\left\{ 0,1,\dots,N-1\right\} \). More generally, if \(N_{1}N_{2}\dots N_{k}=N\) and \(G\) is the finite abelian group \(\mathbb{Z}_{N_{1}}\times\mathbb{Z}_{N_{2}}\times \dots \times \mathbb{Z}_{N_{k}}\), then the complex Hadamard matrix \(F_{G}:=F_{N_{1}}\otimes F_{N_{2}}\otimes \dots \otimes F_{N_{k}}\) is called the Fourier matrix for \(G\). Let \(T_{H}M\) denote the tangent space to a smooth real manifold at a point \(H\). Then the enveloping tangent space of \(C_{N}\) at \(H\in C_{N}\) is defined to be \(\tilde{T}_{H}C_{N}:=T_{H}M_{N}(\mathbb{T)}\cap T_{H}\sqrt{N}U_{N}\) (this is not the tangent space of \(C_{N}\) in the usual sense). This paper considers the computation of the defect \(d(H):=\dim(\tilde{T}_{H}C_{N})\) (see [\textit{W. Tadej} and \textit{K. Życzkowski}, Linear Algebra Appl. 429, No. 2--3, 447--481 (2008; Zbl 1143.15024)]). The main result is that \(d(F_{G})=\sum_{g\in G}\left| G\right| /\operatorname{ord}(g)\) which leads to an explicit formula for \(d(F_{G})\) in terms of the invariants of \(G\). The final section of the paper considers the question: ``Does the associated quantum permutation group see the defect?''