Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/iii/paper-52/2/e/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 52 2 e Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-14
For a Hermitian Quantum Hamiltonian, . ConsequentlySwapping changes the sign of the commutator, so . The generator is therefore real and antisymmetric. Its last column vanishes because the identity commutes with , so and the traceless block satisfies .
For constant , the Bloch vector evolves by with . Direct differentiation givesHence . Its determinant is continuously connected to one and cannot change between the two possible values , so . This proves that the evolution is a rotation in the special orthogonal group. A time-dependent Hermitian Quantum Hamiltonian has the same conclusion from .
These Hamiltonian rotations of Bloch vectors preserve the Euclidean norm and purity of a density operator. For , not every rotation of the ambient sphere is a physical unitary conjugation: the higher-dimensional positivity constraints and full spectrum of the density operator impose further restrictions.
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