QBism.org

Ah, that fresh new-website smell!
With Jacques’ post about more conceptual matters having just started us off, I figured it would be a good time to make a note on the technical side. Sisters, misters and dichotomy resisters, I present to you A First Course in the Sporadic SICs, SpringerBriefs in Mathematical Physics volume 41 (2021).

Here’s the flap copy:

This book focuses on the Symmetric Informationally Complete quantum measurements (SICs) in dimensions 2 and 3, along with one set of SICs in dimension 8. These objects stand out in ways that have earned them the moniker of “sporadic SICs”. By some standards, they are more approachable than the other known SICs, while by others they are simply atypical. The author forays into quantum information theory using them as examples, and the author explores their connections with other exceptional objects like the Leech lattice and integral octonions. The sporadic SICs take readers from the classification of finite simple groups to Bell’s theorem and the discovery that “hidden variables” cannot explain away quantum uncertainty.

While no one department teaches every subject to which the sporadic SICs pertain, the topic is approachable without too much background knowledge. The book includes exercises suitable for an elective at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level.

Since there’s no way to discover glitches in a book that is quite so foolproof as having it in print, I expect there will be errata on the way. I will keep track of those at the appropriate page.