Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/iii/paper-51/2/d/solution

No measurement on the supplied system alone distinguishes ensembles with the same density operator. A completely general measurement in quantum mechanics has POVM effects with . The outcome probability for a quantum ensemble is
If both ensembles have the same , every outcome probability is identical. This proves the claim for all positive operator-valued measures, and includes projective measurements as a special case. An quantum ancilla in a fixed independent state does not help: the input density operators remain identical after tensoring with that ancilla, and the same argument applies to any joint measurement.
The premise concerns access only to the prepared state. An accessible preparation label or a correlated purification of a density operator is additional information outside that premise and can distinguish global preparations. Without such side information, different ensemble decompositions do not define distinguishable states.

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