Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/iii/paper-323/4/i/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 323 4 i Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For any normalized pure state on finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces , the Schmidt decomposition givesThe and form orthonormal sets in their respective spaces. The positive numbers are the Schmidt coefficients, and is the Schmidt rank. Taking a partial trace gives the reduced density matricesThus the nonzero eigenvalues of the two reduced density matrices agree.
One construction is a singular value decomposition of the coefficient matrix in . If , the columns of give , the complex conjugates of the columns of give , and the singular values give . This also explains why the Schmidt coefficients are real and nonnegative.
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