P. Oscar Boykin

My co-authors Meera Sitharam, Mohamad Tarifi, and Pawel Wocjan and I put a new preprint on the Arxiv today: Real Mutually Unbiased Bases. This work considers MUBs over the reals. In this case, we can get interesting upper and lower bounds on the number of real MUBs in each dimension. The problem seems to be rather different than the complex case, due to the discrete nature of real MUBs.

Hopefully, this approach could give us new insight into finding bounds for complex MUBs.

I am very interested in the Roberts confirmation and I think it is important that it be taken seriously, however I am disappointed that so many Americans (Senators and Representatives included) seem to think that the Supreme Court has sole authority to deal with issues of individual freedom. My reading of the US Constitution’s Article V is that Congress can amend the Constitution. Granted, it is difficult to pass amendments, but it is the duty of the Congress to do so if need be.

Finally, there has been much talk in the news about the “so-called right to privacy”. To those who look for literal statements affirming such a right, I ask, what do these two ammendments mean:

Amendment IX:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The 9th amendment was inserted specifically because of the fear that enumerating rights would eventually lead some to argue any right not enumerated was not granted. So, in my view, the 9th amendment specifically says that you cannot limit the rights of the individual to those that appear in the Constitution. Within our system, I think the question of a right to privacy is a bit backwards. Instead, we should consider how and under what circumstances the government may invade our privacy.