Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/iii/paper-323/4/i/solution

For any normalized pure state on finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces , the Schmidt decomposition gives
The 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 matrices
Thus 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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