Two-state ensembles of a maximally mixed qubit
ID: two-state-ensembles-of-a-maximally-mixed-qubit
For normalized pure states , a two-member quantum state ensemble gives the maximally mixed state of a qubit exactly when its members are orthogonal and equally probable. To prove necessity, take expectation values of its density matrix in the two members: and . Hence and the overlap vanishes. Sufficiency is the resolution of the identity in an orthonormal basis.
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