Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/iii/paper-34/3/b/solution

From the derived formula,
so the action on the Bloch vector is
For , every direction is contracted by the same positive factor. The pure-state Bloch sphere becomes a concentric sphere of radius , and the Bloch ball contracts towards the maximally mixed density operator . The lack of a preferred direction explains the name depolarizing channel.
At all inputs become . For the allowed Pauli-error range , the factor is negative, so there is also an antipodal reversal; the radius is . Thus it would be incorrect to describe the whole printed range as positive radial contraction.

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