Arithmetic, mutually unbiased bases and complementary observables

Complementary observables in quantum mechanics may be viewed as Frobenius structures in a dagger monoidal category, such as the category of finite dimensional Hilbert spaces over the complex numbers. On the other hand, their properties crucially depend on the discrete Fourier transform and its associated quantum torus, requiring only the finite fields that underlie mutually unbiased bases. In axiomatic topos theory, the complex numbers are difficult to describe and should not be invoked unnecessarily. This paper surveys some fundamentals of quantum arithmetic using finite field complementary observables, with a view considering more general axiom systems. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3271045]