Complex equiangular cyclic frames and erasures (Q865403)

The author studies frames consisting of \(n\) vectors in a \(k\)-dimensional real or complex Hilbert space with the properties that \(\| x\| ^2 = \sum_{j=1}^n | \langle x,f_j\rangle| ^2 = \| x\| ^2\), \(\| f_j\| =c\), and \(| \langle f_i,f_j\rangle| \) is constant for all \(i\neq j\) (equiangular). Furthermore, a frame is cyclic if there is a unitary operator \(U\) such that \(Uf_j=f_{j+1}\). The construction of frames with these properties is investigated since they are important in coding and decoding and it turns out that results from number theory, in particular Gauss sums and difference sets, play a crucial role in the theory.