Real and complex spherical designs and their Gramian
Abstract
If a (weighted) spherical design is defined as an integration (cubature) rule for a unitarily invariant space P of polynomials (on the sphere), then any unitary image of it is also such a spherical design. It therefore follows that such spherical designs are determined by their Gramian (Gram matrix). We outline a general method to obtain such a characterisation as the minima of a function of the Gramian, which we call a potential. This characterisation can be used for the numerical and analytic construction of spherical designs. When the space P of polynomials is not irreducible under the action of the unitary group, then the potential is not unique. In several cases of interest, e.g., spherical t-designs and half-designs, we use this flexibility to provide potentials with a very simple form. We then use our results to develop certain aspects of the theory of real and complex spherical designs for unitarily invariant polynomial spaces.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.07452,
title = {Real and complex spherical designs and their Gramian},
author = {Shayne Waldron},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.07452},
year = {2025}
}