SIC dimension towers via cyclotomic polynomials

Abstract

We prove a structure theorem for the dimension towers~$\{d_k(D)\}_{k\geq0}$ which arise in the number-theoretic formulation of Zauner's SIC-POVM conjecture over a real quadratic field~$K=\Q(\qD)$. If~$\eps$ denotes the first totally positive power of a fundamental unit of~$K$ and $t_k = \eps^k + \eps^{-k}$ the trace of its $k$-th power, then the SIC dimension tower~$\{d_k=1+t_k\}_{k\geq0}$ is the level~$m=3$ row of an infinite two-dimensional cyclotomic array~$\{\Psi_m(t_k)\}_{m\geq1,k\geq0}$ attached to~$K$, while the auxiliary factors~$(d_k+1)$ and $(d_k-3)$ are its ramified levels $m=2$ and $m=1$. Here~$\Psi_m$ denotes the minimal polynomial of~ $\zeta_m+\zeta_m^{-1} = 2\cos{2\pi/m}$. This construction arose initially from an attempt to formulate relations among SIC dimensions in $q$-algebraic terms. The central object is a single closed composite norm relation for the two-parameter family $c_{m,k}=1-\zeta_m\eps^k$ over the cyclotomic field tower $\{K(\mu_m)\}_{m\geq1}$. This framework sheds new light on the mod-$p$ analogue of Leopoldt's conjecture, by placing the central 3-symmetry of Zauner's conjecture within a broader arithmetic context. Away from the primes dividing~$2mD$, the valuations $v_p(\Psi_m(t_k))$ at every fixed level~$m$ are described exactly in terms of a single local unit valuation, which is then related, through the~$p$-adic class number formula, to the corresponding $p$-adic $L$-value.