Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2006/iii/paper-60/1/d/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 60 1 d Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Von Neumann equation integrates to , so the spectrum and purity of a density operator are invariant under any allowed open-loop control. These are the kinematic restrictions.
There is no additional orbit restriction here: the generators and , together with their matrix commutator, span the special unitary Lie algebra:For freely chosen durations and piecewise continuous real control values, this gives density operator controllability. The connected reachable group is ; its action by conjugation is the same as that of , because a global phase cancels. Thus exactly the pairs and can be interconverted. No coherent control can turn either mixed state into either pure state, even though every orientation within each spectral orbit is reachable.
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