Geometry of the generalized Bloch sphere for qutrits

The geometry of the generalized Bloch sphere $Ω_3$, the state space of a qutrit, is studied. Closed form expressions for $Ω_3$, its boundary $\partial Ω_3$, and the set of extremals $Ω_3^{\rm ext}$ are obtained by use of an elementary observation. These expressions and analytic methods are used to classify the 28 two-sections and the 56 three-sections of $Ω_3$ into unitary equivalence classes, completing the works of earlier authors. It is shown, in particular, that there are families of two-sections and of three-sections which are equivalent geometrically but not unitarily, a feature that does not appear to have been appreciated earlier. A family of three-sections of obese-tetrahedral shape whose symmetry corresponds to the 24-element tetrahedral point group $T_d$ is examined in detail. This symmetry is traced to the natural reduction of the adjoint representation of $SU(3)$, the symmetry underlying $Ω_3$, into direct sum of the two-dimensional and the two (inequivalent) three-dimensional irreducible representations of $T_d$.

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