Undisclosed qubit measurement outcome with an unspecified preparation prior

ID: undisclosed-qubit-measurement-outcome-with-an-unspecified-preparation-prior

After a computational-basis projective measurement, an observer who lacks the result assigns a diagonal density matrix. If the observer's preparation prior has mean , the assignment is the displayed matrix. No outcome record and no stated prior do not logically force ; that value follows from a symmetric or maximum-entropy ignorance convention. An observer who knows the preparation instead uses .

New to topics? Read the docs here!