Mutually unbiased bases for quantum degrees of freedom are central to all theoretical investigations and practical exploitations of complementary properties. Much is known about mutually unbiased bases, but there are also a fair number of important questions that have not been answered in full as yet. In particular, one can find maximal sets of N + 1 mutually unbiased bases in Hilbert spaces of prime-power dimension N = p m , with p prime and m a positive integer, and there is a continuum of mutually unbiased bases for a continuous degree of freedom, such as motion along a line. But not a single example of a maximal set is known if the dimension is another composite number (N = 6, 10, 12, . . . ).In this review, we present a unified approach in which the basis states are labeled by numbers 0, 1, 2, . . . , N − 1 that are both elements of a Galois field and ordinary integers. This dual nature permits a compact systematic construction of maximal sets of mutually unbiased bases when they are known to exist but throws no light on the open existence problem in other cases. We show how to use the thus constructed mutually unbiased bases in quantum-informatics applications, including dense coding, teleportation, entanglement swapping, covariant cloning, and state tomography, all of which rely on an explicit set of maximally entangled states (generalizations of the familiar two-q-bit Bell states) that are related to the mutually unbiased bases.There is a link to the mathematics of finite affine planes. We also exploit the one-toone correspondence between unbiased bases and the complex Hadamard matrices that turn the bases into each other. The Hadamard-matrix approach is instrumental in the very recent advance, surveyed here, of our understanding of the N = 6 situation. All evidence indicates that a maximal set of seven mutually unbiased bases does not exist -one can find no more than three pairwise unbiased bases -although there is currently no clear-cut demonstration of the case.

Recently a new Bell inequality has been introduced by Collins et al. ͓Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 040404 ͑2002͔͒, which is strongly resistant to noise for maximally entangled states of two d-dimensional quantum systems. We prove that a larger violation, or equivalently a stronger resistance to noise, is found for a nonmaximally entangled state. It is shown that the resistance to noise is not a good measure of nonlocality and we introduce some other possible measures. The nonmaximally entangled state turns out to be more robust also for these alternative measures. From these results it follows that two von Neumann measurements per party may be not optimal for detecting nonlocality. For dϭ3,4, we point out some connections between this inequality and distillability. Indeed, we demonstrate that any state violating it, with the optimal von Neumann settings, is distillable.

We consider a generalisation of Ekert's entanglement-based quantum cryptographic protocol where qubits are replaced by quN its (i.e., N -dimensional systems). In order to study its robustness against optimal incoherent attacks, we derive the information gained by a potential eavesdropper during a cloning-based individual attack. In doing so, we generalize Cerf's formalism for cloning machines and establish the form of the most general cloning machine that respects all the symmetries of the problem. We obtain an upper bound on the error rate that guarantees the confidentiality of quN it generalisations of the Ekert's protocol for qubits.PACS numbers: 03.65. Ud.03.67.Dd.89.70.+c Recently it was shown that this violation is more pronounced for the case of entangled quNits [3,4,5] for N > 2. Moreover, the qutrit generalisation of Ekert's protocol is more robust

We consider a generalisation of Ekert's entanglement-based quantum cryptographic protocol where qubits are replaced by quN its (i.e., N -dimensional systems). In order to study its robustness against optimal incoherent attacks, we derive the information gained by a potential eavesdropper during a cloning-based individual attack. In doing so, we generalize Cerf's formalism for cloning machines and establish the form of the most general cloning machine that respects all the symmetries of the problem. We obtain an upper bound on the error rate that guarantees the confidentiality of quN it generalisations of the Ekert's protocol for qubits.

Predictions for systems in entangled states cannot be described in local realistic terms. However, after admixing some noise such a description is possible. We show that for two quantum systems described by N-dimensional Hilbert spaces ͑quNits͒ in a maximally entangled state the minimal admixture of noise increases monotonically with N. The results are a direct extension of those of Kaszlikowski et al. ͓Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4418 ͑2000͔͒, where results for Nр9 were presented. The extension up to Nϭ16 is possible when one defines for each N a specially chosen set of observables. We also present results concerning the critical detectors efficiency beyond which a valid test of local realism for entangled quNits is possible.