  A pure quantum state of N subsystems with d levels each is called
k-multipartite maximally entangled state, written k-uniform, if all its
reductions to k qudits are maximally mixed. These states form a natural
generalization of N-qudits GHZ states which belong to the class 1-uniform
states. We establish a link between the combinatorial notion of orthogonal
arrays and k-uniform states and prove the existence of several new classes of
such states for N-qudit systems. In particular, known Hadamard matrices allow
us to explicitly construct 2-uniform states for an arbitrary number of N>5
qubits. We show that finding a different class of 2-uniform states would imply
the Hadamard conjecture, so the full classification of 2-uniform states seems
to be currently out of reach. Additionally, single vectors of another class of
2-uniform states are one-to-one related to maximal sets of mutually unbiased
bases. Furthermore, we establish links between existence of k-uniform states,
classical and quantum error correction codes and provide a novel graph
representation for such states.
