Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2005/iii/paper-58/4/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 58 4 ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write and . A pure-state density matrix is a rank-one orthogonal projector, so andTaking its square root and trace yields the unsquared quantum fidelityUse unitary invariance of trace distance and fidelity to choose a basis of the span of the two quantum states in which and , with and . Choosing state-vector phases to make the coefficients nonnegative does not change either density matrix. On that span,Its eigenvalues are and , with zero eigenvalues on the orthogonal complement. The positive square root of therefore has two eigenvalues , so the trace distance is . Thus the pure-state trace distance and fidelity identity isIdentical pure quantum states give ; orthogonal pure quantum states give . If the span is one-dimensional, the identical-state result follows directly, so no second basis vector is required. This formula uses the unsquared fidelity convention in the paper; if fidelity denotes squared overlap instead, the square inside the formula is omitted.
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