Complex spherical designs and codes

Abstract: Real spherical designs and real and complex projective designs have been shown by Delsarte, Goethals, and Seidel to give rise to association schemes when the strength of the design is high compared to its degree as a code. In contrast, designs on the complex unit sphere remain relatively uninvestigated, despite their importance in numerous applications. In this paper we develop the notion of a complex spherical design and show how many such designs carry the structure of an association scheme. In contrast with the real spherical designs and the real and complex projective designs, these association schemes are nonsymmetric.