Group theoretical classification of SIC-POVMs

Abstract The Symmetric Informationally Complete Positive Operator-Valued Measures (SIC-POVMs) are known to exist in all dimensions ⩽ 151 and many larger dimensions as high as 39 604 . All known solutions with the exception of the Hoggar solutions are covariant with respect to the Weyl-Heisenberg group and in the case of dimension 3, it has been proven that all SIC-POVMs are Weyl-Heisenberg group covariant. In this work, we explore this by SIC-POVMs in dimensions 4–7 without the assumption of group covariance. We introduce two functions with which SIC-POVM Gram matrices can be generated without the group covariance constraint, and analytically show that the SIC-POVM Gram matrices exist on critical points of the surfaces defined by the two functions on a subspace of Hermitian matrices. In dimensions 4–7, all known SIC-POVM Gram matrices lie in disjoint continuous sets of solution. Thus, we define an equivalent class that relates Gram matrices based on the trivial symmetries of the two functions. In dimensions 4–7, we generated { 1.7 × 10 6 , 1.1 × 10 5 , 169 , 50 } Gram matrices, respectively. For each of the Gram matrices, we generate the symmetry group of their respective disjoint sets. In all cases, the symmetry group was isomorphic to a subgroup of the Clifford group containing the Weyl-Heisenberg group matrices and the order-3 unitaries. In dimensions 4–6, All constructed solutions belonged to a single equivalence class of Gram matrices whereas in dimension 7, we find two distinct families of SIC-POVMs. In dimensions 4 and 5, the absence of new classes of SIC-POVM strongly suggests that the functions do not have a non-trivial symmetry. Furthermore, in all the dimensions tested, the only equivalence classes found correspond to the distinct stabilizers of fiducial vectors of each dimension.