Nice error bases, mutually unbiased bases, induced representations, the Heisenberg group and finite geometries (Q855601)

The concept of states in quantum information borrows from the theory of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces and the algebra of operators on them. Howe focusses on related geometric features found in the mathematical literature. On the one hand one has the concept of \textit{mutually unbiased bases} of the Hilbert space and on the other the concept of \textit{nice error bases} consisting of unitary operators on that space. There is also the finite geometry viewpoint as opposed to the group theory viewpoint. Howe aims at showing that these seemingly different notions or viewpoints are naturally connected via group representation theory, in particular the theory of induced representations formulated by Mackey around 1950. Surprisingly, representations of the Heisenberg-Weyl group over the field \({\mathbb Z}/p\) are shown to play an important role.