If the magic square can contain real numbers, and every row and column sums to 1, then it is called a doubly stochastic matrix. One particular example would be a matrix that has 0's everywhere except for one 1 in every column and every row. This is called a permutation matrix. A famous theorem says that every doubly stochastic matrix can be obtained as a convex combination of permutation matrices. In words, this means that permutation matrices "contain all the secrets" of doubly stochastic matrices -- more precisely, that the latter can be fully characterized in terms of the former.

In a new paper in the Journal of Mathematical Physics, Tim Netzer and Tom Drescher from the Department of Mathematics and Gemma De las Cuevas from the Department of Theoretical Physics have introduced the notion of the quantum magic square, which is a magic square but instead of numbers one puts in matrices. This is a non-commutative, and thus quantum, generalization of a magic square. The authors show that quantum magic squares cannot be as easily characterized as their "classical" cousins. More precisely, quantum magic squares are not convex combinations of quantum permutation matrices. "They are richer and more complicated to understand," explains Tom Drescher. "This is the general theme when generalizations to the non-commutative case are studied."

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Journal Reference:

1. Gemma De las Cuevas, Tom Drescher, Tim Netzer. Quantum magic squares: Dilations and their limitations. Journal of Mathematical Physics, 2020; 61 (11): 111704 DOI: 10.1063/5.0022344