Spherical 2-Designs and Lattices from Abelian Groups

Abstract

We consider lattices generated by finite Abelian groups. We prove that such a lattice is strongly eutactic, which means the normalized minimal vectors of the lattice form a spherical 2-design, if and only if the group is of odd order or if it is a power of the group of order 2. This result also yields a criterion for the appropriately normalized minimal vectors to constitute a uniform normalized tight frame. Further, our result combined with a recent theorem of R. Bacher produces (via the classical Voronoi criterion) a new infinite family of extreme lattices. Additionally, we investigate the structure of the automorphism groups of these lattices, strengthening our previous results in this direction.