The Pauli X gate interchanges the two basis quantum states. Because the bit-flip outcome is a classical unobserved error rather than a coherent superposition, the quantum bit-flip channel gives
For , its explicit density matrix is
For a pure reference quantum state, the square of the paper's quantum fidelity is . Therefore
With , the expectation is , the component of the Bloch vector. Hence
“All possible quantum states” is interpreted as the rotationally invariant uniform pure-qubit average, with measure . Thus
so the average pure-qubit fidelity of a bit-flip channel is
Equivalently, rotational symmetry gives , since a pure-state Bloch vector has unit length. The eigenstates are unchanged as density matrices and have fidelity one, while a computational basis quantum state has ; these provide checks on the angular expression. A uniform distribution in rather than in solid angle would produce the wrong ensemble average. The requested quantity is the mean squared fidelity, not the square of the mean unsquared fidelity.