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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Szilágyi, Zsombor, Weiner, Mihály
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11523
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author Szilágyi, Zsombor
Weiner, Mihály
author_facet Szilágyi, Zsombor
Weiner, Mihály
contents Previous studies on the geometrical properties of the state space of a finite-level quantum system have determined its volume and surface area. Building on this foundation, we derive explicit formulas for two additional intrinsic volume quantities. The question of whether a complete set of mutually unbiased bases exists in dimension $d$ can be equivalently framed as whether a specific convex polytope can be inscribed within the state space of a $d$-level quantum system. One motivation for our work was the hypothesis that a smaller intrinsic volume of the state space compared to the corresponding intrinsic volume of the mentioned polytope could rule out such an inscription. While our computations of these two intrinsic volumes do not lead to this conclusion, they nonetheless provide fundamental insights into the geometric structure of quantum state spaces. In particular, we show that these quantities can be used to rule out the existence of some unit-vector ``configurations'' (though not the one formed by the bases vectors of a complete set of mutually unbiased bases).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_11523
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Intrinsic volumes of the quantum state space and mutually unbiased bases
Szilágyi, Zsombor
Weiner, Mihály
Mathematical Physics
Previous studies on the geometrical properties of the state space of a finite-level quantum system have determined its volume and surface area. Building on this foundation, we derive explicit formulas for two additional intrinsic volume quantities. The question of whether a complete set of mutually unbiased bases exists in dimension $d$ can be equivalently framed as whether a specific convex polytope can be inscribed within the state space of a $d$-level quantum system. One motivation for our work was the hypothesis that a smaller intrinsic volume of the state space compared to the corresponding intrinsic volume of the mentioned polytope could rule out such an inscription. While our computations of these two intrinsic volumes do not lead to this conclusion, they nonetheless provide fundamental insights into the geometric structure of quantum state spaces. In particular, we show that these quantities can be used to rule out the existence of some unit-vector ``configurations'' (though not the one formed by the bases vectors of a complete set of mutually unbiased bases).
title Intrinsic volumes of the quantum state space and mutually unbiased bases
topic Mathematical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11523