arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Matthew Fickus.
We show that there does not exist a complex $d\times n$ equiangular tight frame with \[ d^2-d+1<n<d^2. \] The proof, which originated from an internal model at OpenAI, mimics the relationship between real equiangular tight frames and strongly regular graphs.
We introduce a general technique to construct tight fusion frames with prescribed symmetries. Applying this technique with a prescription for "all the symmetries", we construct a new family of equi-isoclinic tight fusion frames (EITFFs), which consequently form optimal Grassmannian codes. By virtue of their construction, our EITFFs have the remarkable property of total symmetry: any permutation of subspaces can be achieved by an appropriate unitary.
Every equi-isoclinic tight fusion frame (EITFF) is a type of optimal code in a Grassmannian, consisting of subspaces of a finite-dimensional Hilbert space for which the smallest principal angle between any pair of them is as large as possible. EITFFs yield dictionaries with minimal block coherence and so are ideal for certain types of compressed sensing. By refining classical work of Lemmens and Seidel based on Radon-Hurwitz theory, we fully characterize EITFFs in the special case where the dimension of the subspaces is exactly one-half of that of the ambient space. We moreover show that each such "Radon-Hurwitz EITFF" is highly symmetric, where every even permutation is an automorphism.
An equiangular tight frame (ETF) is a finite sequence of equal norm vectors in a Hilbert space that achieves equality in the Welch bound, and so has minimal coherence. The binder of an ETF is the set of all subsets of its indices whose corresponding vectors form a regular simplex. An ETF achieves equality in Donoho and Elad's spark bound if and only if its binder is nonempty. When this occurs, its binder is the set of all linearly dependent subsets of it of minimal size. Moreover, if members of the binder form a balanced incomplete block design (BIBD) then its incidence matrix can be phased to produce a sparse representation of its dual (Naimark complement). A few infinite families of ETFs are known to have this remarkable property. In this paper, we relate this property to the recently introduced concept of a doubly transitive equiangular tight frame (DTETF), namely an ETF for which the natural action of its symmetry group is doubly transitive. In particular, we show that the binder of any DTETF is either empty or forms a BIBD, and moreover that when the latter occurs, any member of the binder of its dual is an oval of this BIBD. We then apply this general theory to certain known infinite families of DTETFs. Specifically, any symplectic form on a finite vector space yields a DTETF, and we compute the binder of it and its dual, showing that the former is empty except in a single notable case, and that the latter consists of affine Lagrangian subspaces. This unifies and generalizes several results from the existing literature. We then consider the binders of four infinite families of DTETFs that arise from quadratic forms over the field of two elements, showing that two of these are empty except in a finite number of cases, whereas the other two form BIBDs that relate to each other, and to Lagrangian subspaces, in nonobvious ways.
In 1992, Godsil and Hensel published a ground-breaking study of distance-regular antipodal covers of the complete graph that, among other things, introduced an important connection with equi-isoclinic subspaces. This connection seems to have been overlooked, as many of its immediate consequences have never been detailed in the literature. To correct this situation, we first describe how Godsil and Hensel's machine uses representation theory to construct equi-isoclinic tight fusion frames. Applying this machine to Mathon's construction produces $q+1$ planes in $\mathbb{R}^{q+1}$ for any even prime power $q>2$. Despite being an application of the 30-year-old Godsil-Hensel result, infinitely many of these parameters have never been enunciated in the literature. Following ideas from Et-Taoui, we then investigate a fruitful interplay with complex symmetric conference matrices.
Let $\lambda(m)$ denote the maximal absolute projection constant over real $m$-dimensional subspaces. This quantity is extremely hard to determine exactly, as testified by the fact that the only known value of $\lambda(m)$ for $m>1$ is $\lambda(2)=4/3$. There is also numerical evidence indicating that $\lambda(3)=(1+\sqrt{5})/2$. In this paper, relying on a new construction of certain mutually unbiased equiangular tight frames, we show that $\lambda(5)\geq 5(11+6\sqrt{5})/59 \approx 2.06919$. This value coincides with the numerical estimation of $\lambda(5)$ obtained by B. L. Chalmers, thus reinforcing the belief that this is the exact value of $\lambda(5)$.
An equi-isoclinic tight fusion frame (EITFF) is a type of Grassmannian code, being a sequence of subspaces of a finite-dimensional Hilbert space of a given dimension with the property that the smallest spectral distance between any pair of them is as large as possible. EITFFs arise in compressed sensing, yielding dictionaries with minimal block coherence. Their existence remains poorly characterized. Most known EITFFs have parameters that match those of one that arose from an equiangular tight frame (ETF) in a rudimentary, direct-sum-based way. In this paper, we construct new infinite families of non-"tensor-sized" EITFFs in a way that generalizes the one previously known infinite family of them as well as the celebrated equivalence between harmonic ETFs and difference sets for finite abelian groups. In particular, we construct EITFFs consisting of $Q$ planes in $\mathbb{C}^Q$ for each prime power $Q\geq 4$, of $Q-1$ planes in $\mathbb{C}^Q$ for each odd prime power $Q$, and of $11$ three-dimensional subspaces in $\mathbb{R}^{11}$. The key idea is that every harmonic EITFF -- one that is the orbit of a single subspace under the action of a unitary representation of a finite abelian group -- arises from a smaller tight fusion frame with a nicely behaved "Fourier transform." Our particular constructions of harmonic EITFFs exploit the properties of Gauss sums over finite fields.
An equichordal tight fusion frame (ECTFF) is a finite sequence of equi-dimensional subspaces of a finite-dimensional Hilbert space that achieves equality in Conway, Hardin and Sloane's simplex bound. Every ECTFF is a type of optimal Grassmannian code, being a way to arrange a given number of members of a Grassmannian so that the minimal chordal distance between any pair of them is as large as possible. Any nontrivial ECTFF has both a Naimark complement and spatial complement which themselves are ECTFFs. It turns out that whenever the number of subspaces is at least five, taking iterated alternating Naimark and spatial complements of one ECTFF yields an infinite family of them with distinct parameters. This makes it challenging to certify the novelty of any recently discovered ECTFF: how can one guarantee that it does not arise from any previously known construction in such a Naimark-spatial way? In this paper, we propose a solution to this problem, showing that any ECTFF is a member of a Naimark-spatial family originating from either a trivial ECTFF or one with unique "minimal" parameters. In the latter case, if its minimal parameters do not match those of any previously known ECTFF, it is certifiably new. As a proof of concept, we then use these ideas to certify the novelty of some ECTFFs arising from a new method for constructing them from difference families for finite abelian groups. This method properly generalizes King's construction of ECTFFs from semiregular divisible difference sets.
An equiangular tight frame (ETF) is a sequence of vectors in a Hilbert space that achieves equality in the Welch bound and so has minimal coherence. More generally, an equichordal tight fusion frame (ECTFF) is a sequence of equi-dimensional subspaces of a Hilbert space that achieves equality in Conway, Hardin and Sloane's simplex bound. Every ECTFF is a type of optimal Grassmannian code, that is, an optimal packing of equi-dimensional subspaces of a Hilbert space. We construct ECTFFs by exploiting new relationships between known ETFs. Harmonic ETFs equate to difference sets for finite abelian groups. We say that a difference set for such a group is "paired" with a difference set for its Pontryagin dual when the corresponding subsequence of its harmonic ETF happens to be an ETF for its span. We show that every such pair yields an ECTFF. We moreover construct an infinite family of paired difference sets using quadratic forms over the field of two elements. Together this yields two infinite families of real ECTFFs.
An equiangular tight frame (ETF) yields a type of optimal packing of lines in a Euclidean space. ETFs seem to be rare, and all known infinite families of them arise from some type of combinatorial design. In this paper, we introduce a new method for constructing ETFs. We begin by showing that it is sometimes possible to construct multiple ETFs for the same space that are "mutually unbiased" in a way that is analogous to the quantum-information-theoretic concept of mutually unbiased bases. We then show that taking certain tensor products of these mutually unbiased ETFs with other ETFs sometimes yields infinite families of new complex ETFs.
An equiangular tight frame (ETF) is a sequence of unit-norm vectors in a Euclidean space whose coherence achieves equality in the Welch bound, and thus yields an optimal packing in a projective space. A regular simplex is a simple type of ETF in which the number of vectors is one more than the dimension of the underlying space. More sophisticated examples include harmonic ETFs which equate to difference sets in finite abelian groups. Recently, it was shown that some harmonic ETFs are comprised of regular simplices. In this paper, we continue the investigation into these special harmonic ETFs. We begin by characterizing when the subspaces that are spanned by the ETF's regular simplices form an equi-isoclinic tight fusion frame (EITFF), which is a type of optimal packing in a Grassmannian space. We shall see that every difference set that produces an EITFF in this way also yields a complex circulant conference matrix. Next, we consider a subclass of these difference sets that can be factored in terms of a smaller difference set and a relative difference set. It turns out that these relative difference sets lend themselves to a second, related and yet distinct, construction of complex circulant conference matrices. Finally, we provide explicit infinite families of ETFs to which this theory applies.
An equiangular tight frame (ETF) is a type of optimal packing of lines in a real or complex Hilbert space. In the complex case, the existence of an ETF of a given size remains an open problem in many cases. In this paper, we observe that many of the known constructions of ETFs are of one of two types. We further provide a new method for combining a given ETF of one of these two types with an appropriate group divisible design (GDD) in order to produce a larger ETF of the same type. By applying this method to known families of ETFs and GDDs, we obtain several new infinite families of ETFs. The real instances of these ETFs correspond to several new infinite families of strongly regular graphs. Our approach was inspired by a seminal paper of Davis and Jedwab which both unified and generalized McFarland and Spence difference sets. We provide combinatorial analogs of their algebraic results, unifying Steiner ETFs with hyperoval ETFs and Tremain ETFs.
An equiangular tight frame (ETF) is a type of optimal packing of lines in Euclidean space. A regular simplex is a special type of ETF in which the number of vectors is one more than the dimension of the space they span. In this paper, we consider ETFs that contain a regular simplex, that is, have the property that a subset of its vectors forms a regular simplex. As we explain, such ETFs are characterized as those that achieve equality in a certain well-known bound from the theory of compressed sensing. We then consider the so-called binder of such an ETF, namely the set of all regular simplices that it contains. We provide a new algorithm for computing this binder in terms of products of entries of the ETF's Gram matrix. In certain circumstances, we show this binder can be used to produce a particularly elegant Naimark complement of the corresponding ETF. Other times, an ETF is a disjoint union of regular simplices, and we show this leads to a certain type of optimal packing of subspaces known as an equichordal tight fusion frame. We conclude by considering the extent to which these ideas can be applied to numerous known constructions of ETFs, including harmonic ETFs.
Equi-chordal and equi-isoclinic tight fusion frames (ECTFFs and EITFFs) are both types of optimal packings of subspaces in Euclidean spaces. In the special case where these subspaces are one-dimensional, ECTFFs and EITFFs both correspond to types of optimal packings of lines known as equiangular tight frames. In this brief note, we review some of the fundamental ideas and results concerning ECTFFs and EITFFs.
This paper applies techniques from algebraic and differential geometry to determine how to best pack points in real projective spaces. We present a computer-assisted proof of the optimality of a particular 6-packing in $\mathbb{R}\mathbf{P}^3$, we introduce a linear-time constant-factor approximation algorithm for packing in the so-called Gerzon range, and we provide local optimality certificates for two infinite families of packings. Finally, we present perfected versions of various putatively optimal packings from Sloane's online database, along with a handful of infinite families they suggest, and we prove that these packings enjoy a certain weak notion of optimality.
An equiangular tight frame (ETF) is a type of optimal packing of lines in Euclidean space. They are often represented as the columns of a short, fat matrix. In certain applications we want this matrix to be flat, that is, have the property that all of its entries have modulus one. In particular, real flat ETFs are equivalent to self-complementary binary codes that achieve the Grey-Rankin bound. Some flat ETFs are (complex) Hadamard ETFs, meaning they arise by extracting rows from a (complex) Hadamard matrix. These include harmonic ETFs, which are obtained by extracting the rows of a character table that correspond to a difference set in the underlying finite abelian group. In this paper, we give some new results about flat ETFs. One of these results gives an explicit Naimark complement for all Steiner ETFs, which in turn implies that all Kirkman ETFs are possibly-complex Hadamard ETFs. This in particular produces a new infinite family of real flat ETFs. Another result establishes an equivalence between real flat ETFs and certain types of quasi-symmetric designs, resulting in a new infinite family of such designs.
We present a new smooth, Gaussian-like kernel that allows the kernel density estimate for an angular distribution to be exactly represented by a finite number of its Fourier series coefficients. Distributions of angular quantities, such as gradients, are a central part of several state-of-the-art image processing algorithms, but these distributions are usually described via histograms and therefore lack rotation invariance due to binning artifacts. Replacing histograming with kernel density estimation removes these binning artifacts and can provide a finite-dimensional descriptor of the distribution, provided that the kernel is selected to be bandlimited. In this paper, we present a new band-limited kernel that has the added advantage of being Gaussian-like in the angular domain. We then show that it compares favorably to gradient histograms for patch matching, person detection, and texture segmentation.
An equiangular tight frame (ETF) is a type of optimal packing of lines in a finite-dimensional Hilbert space. ETFs arise in various applications, such as waveform design for wireless communication, compressed sensing, quantum information theory and algebraic coding theory. In a recent paper, signature matrices of ETFs were constructed from abelian distance regular covers of complete graphs. We extend this work, constructing ETF synthesis operators from abelian generalized quadrangles, and vice versa. This produces a new infinite family of complex ETFs as well as a new proof of the existence of certain generalized quadrangles. This work involves designing matrices whose entries are polynomials over a finite abelian group. As such, it is related to the concept of a polyphase matrix of a finite filter bank.