Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ii Paper 2 33C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The rotation unitary operator is . A state with zero orbital angular momentum has a rotationally invariant orbital factor; a spinless state is wholly unchanged. Zero orbital angular momentum alone does not rule out a nontrivial rotation of intrinsic spin angular momentum.
For spin one-half, . Direct multiplication of the Pauli matrices gives . The antisymmetric part vanishes when contracted with , henceFor , the operator has trace zero, so its eigenvalues are ; for both are zero. With unit , the even and odd powers in the exponential give
Take . The rotated state satisfies , because . By the Born rule, the probability of this outcome in the initial state is . In the eigenbasis,The transition from to thus has probability . .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ii Paper 1 33D Solution 2026-10-14
On the tensor product state space, the total angular momentum is , conventionally abbreviated . Operators on different factors commute. Define . Expanding the square givesThe first three terms commute with . In a mixed term one subsystem's magnetic quantum number increases and the other's decreases, so its commutator with total is zero. Hence .
Use the standard identities and . The PDF has the commutator in the reversed order with unchanged sign and prints also for lowering; these are sign/label slips. The standard identities are consistent with the meaning of raising and lowering and are used here.
Put . The unique product state of magnetic quantum number isFor , define the orthonormal product states and . Raising the preceding state givesThe normalized orthogonal combination is annihilated by , because its two lowering amplitudes cancel. It is consequently the lowest-weight state with :up to an overall phase. For , the outcome is the component. The Born rule therefore gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 65 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The measurement effect of the Pauli operator is . The Born rule and the Bloch vector representation giveThe other two Bloch vector components do not enter this projective measurement probability.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 66 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The equal mixture of and cancels their off-diagonal coherence, leaving the separable quantum stateA trivial LHV model chooses a shared random bit , uniformly zero or one, and prepares both local qubits in . Each party uses the local Born rule for its own chosen spin direction, with independent local random seeds if a deterministic description is desired. This reproduces the entire joint measurement distribution, not merely the -axis correlation.
Since the state has an explicit local hidden-variable theory for these local measurements, it cannot violate the CHSH inequality, by the derivation in part (b). Classical correlation of the shared preparation bit is sufficient; the cancellation of coherence removes the entanglement.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 57 1 a ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
In Bohmian mechanics the particle has a definite position at every time. Its wavefunction obeys the usual autonomous wave equation, while its actual position follows the guidance equationHere is the probability current. The Born rule is the quantum-equilibrium choice of initial position distribution ; quantum equilibrium equivariance ensures that this distribution persists because it obeys the same probability continuity equation as the wave amplitude. The guidance equation fixes the initial velocity as well as subsequent velocities: the second-order equation below does not permit an independent arbitrary initial velocity.
Define the quantum potentialTaking the gradient of the real Madelung equations givesOn any smooth phase patch , so . Along the actual path, differentiation is the material derivative . ThereforeThis is the Bohmian mechanics Newton form: the classical force is supplemented by the amplitude-dependent quantum potential. Neither division by nor a smooth phase is justified at a wavefunction node, so the derivation applies on nonzero-amplitude regions. A nonzero circulation around a node is compatible with the locally curl-free guidance equation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 57 3 c ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
At the four eigenstates are the computational product basis, with irrelevant signs on two vectors. Alice and Bob measure their own system qubits in . These local projective measurements preserve each product eigenstate; their pair of records identifies the global outcome after local operations and classical communication.
At the four states are the Bell states. They are simultaneous eigenstates of the commuting Pauli operators and : have respective pairs . Their nonlocal parity measurements can be performed without directly distinguishing the local system spins.
Use the first shared Bell state pair to perform the entanglement-assisted nondemolition parity measurement of . Use the second shared pair for : both parties apply a local Hadamard gate to their system qubit, execute the same local system-to-meter CNOT gates and -meter measurements, then undo the Hadamard gates. This measures because . The two system parity projectors commute, since anticommutation at both sites cancels:Each is the corresponding rank-one Bell state projector. Every complete tuple of four local meter records has system Kraus operator for its two parities. Summing the four record tuples compatible with gives the ideal outcome map . The protocol is a Bell-state nondemolition measurement: an input Bell state is preserved, while an arbitrary input is projected onto the reported Bell state with the Born rule probability.
The local circuits need no adaptive communication between the laboratories, so both parties can finish inside the specified time window. Global identification of still requires later local operations and classical communication. This endpoint protocol respects quantum no-signalling, unlike the hypothetical intermediate-angle instrument in part (i).
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 15A iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The original PDF threshold contains , not . It is , so the energies strictly above it are exactly those with . By the Born rule, the required probability is . The two excluded amplitudes areConsequentlyThus, in increasing powers of ,The threshold lies strictly between and , so no equality-at-threshold convention affects the answer.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 61 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Since is a unitary operator, its eigenstates form an orthonormal basis. Expand , with eigenphases . By linearity, the unmeasured quantum phase estimation output isThis is generally an entangled state, not a phase label attached to an unchanged pure system state. The distinct eigenvalues give distinct phase labels, so a computational basis measurement yields with Born rule probability and leaves in the system register. Before measurement, all relative phases remain coherent; that is essential for the following spectral transformation. If phases were degenerate, a measured label would instead select the corresponding eigenspace component.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 62 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
In an ontological model of a quantum system, a preparation of gives a probability distribution over a physical state . A fixed quantum measurement has response probabilities with , reproducing the Born rule after averaging over . The PBR theorem says that, assuming preparation independence and the quantum predictions, distributions for distinct pure states cannot overlap with positive probability. Thus the quantum state is determined by the physical state in the psi-ontic model sense.
Preparation independence says that separately prepared systems have independent physical states: a product preparation is represented by the product of their individual ontic distributions. This is an assumption about the underlying physical states, not merely a statement that experimental preparation choices are independent. The excluded psi-epistemic model hypothesis is that the same physical state can occur with positive probability for two different pure-state preparations. The theorem neither excludes additional hidden variables nor claims that every interpretation which speaks of information is ruled out without these assumptions.
For the two given qubit preparations, consider the following PBR exclusion measurement for zero and plus, written in the ordered basis :Direct inner products show that these four vectors are an orthonormal basis. Each labelled vector is orthogonal to the correspondingly labelled product preparation, so the associated projective measurement satisfiesThis is an example of antidistinguishable quantum states: every outcome excludes one possible preparation, although the preparations cannot be perfectly distinguished.
To prove the contradiction without requiring deterministic quantum measurement responses, choose a common dominating measure for and write their densities . If they overlap, has mass . By preparation independence, every one of the four product densities dominates . Its total mass is . The zero Born rule probability for outcome implies that its nonnegative response vanishes almost everywhere for its matching preparation, hence also under this common product measure. All four responses would then vanish on a set of positive measure, contradicting their sum being one. Therefore and are mutually singular.
For the second pair, group the independent preparations into two blocks of . Define . The tensor-power reduction of PBR overlap givesEach block therefore has an effective two-dimensional Hilbert space. Explicitly,are orthonormal and . Embed the four-vector exclusion basis above into the tensor product of these two block spaces. To obtain a complete quantum measurement on all qubits, add the orthogonal complement of that four-dimensional subspace to one of its four projectors. All four allowed preparations lie in the subspace, so the four forbidden probabilities remain zero.
If the single-copy preparation distributions overlap with common mass , their -fold products all dominate the common measure of mass . The same zero-response contradiction now applies to the four block preparations. ThusThe argument is exact for the ideal devices specified in the question; no finite experimental resolution or noisy overlap bound is assumed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 62 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let and describe unitary time evolution. For an ideal projective measurement with the Lüders rule, its unconditioned outcome probability is . After that outcome, the normalized state is . The Born rule probability of successful postselection is then . Multiplying gives the joint probabilityConditional probability therefore gives the Aharonov-Bergmann-Lebowitz rule:The denominator must be positive; otherwise the selected subensemble does not occur. Define the forward-evolved ket and backward-evolved ket . The numerator becomes , which is unchanged by interchanging . Equivalently, with and ,This expresses the boundary-state symmetry explicitly. It follows from the ordinary time-asymmetric preparation, Born rule, and state update; it does not posit an additional backward dynamical collapse.
Restore the post-selected vector omitted entirely from the TeX aid by reading the original PDF. Write andIts norm is one because . For the uniform prestate and , put . The individual transition amplitudes areIn experiment , the complement amplitude is . Thus for every ,The successful postselection rate in this experiment is .
In the fully resolved experiment , the ABL rule squares the individual amplitudes before summing. Their squared sum is , givingThese probabilities sum to one. For they reduce to a single certain outcome in either quantum measurement. For , the N-box pre- and post-selection paradox is that each separate binary question can be answered affirmatively with certainty, although the fully resolved quantum measurement cannot give all those outcomes at once.
There is no inconsistency. In , the unresolved complement preserves coherent cancellation between its basis contributions under the Lüders rule. In , those alternatives are resolved, so their squared amplitudes add instead. The different projective measurements disturb the state differently and have different postselection success rates. Merely merging the recorded outcomes afterwards does not reproduce . This is the context dependence of pre- and post-selected measurements; certainties in mutually alternative experiments do not describe simultaneous measurement-independent properties.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 62 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The GRW model takes a normalized wave function in . Between jumps it obeys the Schrödinger equation, , with the usual many-particle Hamiltonian operator, for example . Each particle has an independent Poisson process of collapse times with rate . Thus the total jump rate is , the mean wait is , and the jumping label is uniform on .
At a jump of particle , use the GRW localization operatorIts centre has probability density function . The post-jump quantum state is . The normalization is consistent because . The collapse times and labels have these state-independent rates; the centres depend on the wave function through the Born rule-like squared norm.
For precision about the stated spatial event, let . With , the GRW collapse-centre event probabilities are exactlyThe last expression is defined only for . It includes the possibility that the next jump hits the same particle.
Write , and similarly . Putwith the same definitions for . The macroscopic separation and negligible packet tails make the two branches essentially orthogonal, so their interference contribution can be neglected. The first-event probability is thereforeThe contribution is extremely small: its actual positions are within of , whereas centres in are within of , leaving a distance much larger than in the Gaussian. Packet-tail errors add to this Gaussian-tail error.
For the next-event calculation, two distinct labels have independent position densities within either product branch, giving factors . A repeated label instead gives , since both localization Gaussians multiply the same position variable. ConsequentlyThese formulas, with , answer the spatial questions without an extra containment assumption. If the first event is dominated by the branch, they simplify toNeglecting the term in this conditional expression requires it to be small relative to the retained first-event probability, not merely small in absolute value. The exact operator formulas above cover rare-event exceptions as well.
The intended GRW branch persistence versus geometric containment approximation is obtained if and contain essentially all the position mass of their corresponding branches. Then positions in have a Gaussian-centre margin of inside , so , while . This givesFor the Gaussian convention used here, the three-dimensional probability of a displacement exceeding is , an extremely small number. A first centre near also suppresses the branch relative to the branch by the very small ratio when the latter branch has appreciable weight. All particles are correlated with the same pointer alternative, so one localization selects the macroscopic branch even when the next particle label differs.
The literal PDF, however, only places the packet centres in ; it does not say that the packets themselves fit inside . Since it permits , the two numerical approximations just displayed do not follow for every allowed packet and region. For example, take all , let be a very small ball, and let be uniform on a ball of radius . Translate the other branch to a similarly small region at distance much larger than . ThenIf these equal packet probabilities are denoted by and their repeated-label integral by , the next probability iswhich approaches , not one, for large . Thus packet containment is needed for the stated near-region event to have the usual branch probabilities. The literal general answer is given by the integrals above.
The physical GRW amplification mechanism remains intact: with properly chosen macroscopic branch regions, spontaneous localization selects the alternatives with approximately the squared branch amplitudes and stabilizes the selected record, on a time scale . Gaussian tails are not exactly eliminated, so the persistence is approximate. The containment qualification concerns how the region is defined, rather than whether the dynamics selects a macroscopically separated branch.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 63 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The class uses polynomial-register real-arithmetic computation: its storage restriction counts real registers, without limiting their precision or the running time. Use the usual decision-model interpretation that computed real values may be compared with fixed thresholds, and that the fixed universal gate set's real constants are available. Without a way to test values, arithmetic instructions alone would not specify the intended decision model.
Let a BQP quantum circuit use qubits and gates. A matrix element can be evaluated by depth-first quantum circuit path summation:Enumerate the intermediate -bit strings recursively. Store the current strings and loop positions, a partial product, and the partial sum at each depth. There are at most active levels, using registers or bits of loop information, not an exponentially long state vector. Each fixed-locality gate matrix element is computed from its few affected bits. Represent a complex number by two real registers; complex multiplication and addition require only real addition, subtraction and multiplication.
Recompute this amplitude separately for every final string whose output bit is one, accumulating the Born rule probabilityThe outer enumeration needs only another bits and a real accumulator. Arbitrarily large running time is allowed, so repeated recomputation is harmless. Compare with to distinguish the promised BQP cases. This proves using polynomial storage.
The printed probability hint omits the squares of the amplitude moduli. Summing their absolute values alone is not the Born rule and can exceed one. The corrected sum above is necessary for the containment proof. The argument is about the stated real-register model, rather than a claim that exponential-precision numbers are free in an ordinary bit-cost model.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ib Paper 1 15B a i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the normalized eigenfunctions of the infinite square well,The sine identity expands the initial wavefunction asThe normalization factor yields precisely these coefficients. By the Born rule, the energy measurement probabilities are for and for . Thus the energy expectation isThe two probabilities sum to one, also checking the wavefunction normalization.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 324 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The computational-basis projectors on the first qubit areThe Pauli Z gate acts as on the first subspace and on the second, so . By the Born rule, . Therefore the expectation determines the output probabilities:The normalization supplies ; no product-state assumption is needed for this identity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ib Paper 2 17B b ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The sudden approximation keeps the wavefunction unchanged at the instant of switching: a finite step of potential creates no delta-function impulse in the Schrödinger equation. Just before switching the old ground state differs from the printed real wavefunction only by an overall phase, which does not affect probabilities.
Let , , be the new ground state. Its overlap with the initial state is, up to that phase,Since , the Gaussian integral gives . The Born rule and the ground-state overlap after sudden oscillator displacement thus giveThis is an overlap probability, not a claim that the original wavefunction instantaneously relaxes to the new ground state. It becomes one when .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ib Paper 3 8B b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The Born rule gives the probability of as the squared coefficient of the initial state in the energy eigenstate basis. Direct integration givesThe strict energy cutoff corresponds to , so only contribute. Both coefficients equal , and thereforeThe discontinuous initial wavefunction is a legitimate normalized state for this spectral probability calculation, although it is not in the Hamiltonian's differentiability domain; finite mean energy is not required to compute this probability.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 324 1 b ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let be the unique discrete logarithm of the measured value , so that . The fiber calculation gives exactly the pairs with , where . The initial amplitude of each pair is , so the Born rule assigns probability to this outcome.
After projective measurement and normalization, the first two quantum registers are in the coset stateThe measured third quantum register factors as and may be omitted. There is no loss of coherence between the terms in this post-measurement state: the quantum measurement reveals the common function value, not an individual input pair.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 324 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Assume first . Define the orthonormal quantum statesand by . The relevant invariant subspace is the two-dimensional span of these quantum states, not the entire Hilbert space. The uniform quantum superposition is .
In the ordered orthonormal basis , the marked-state phase oracle is the reflection operator . Since , conjugation by the Walsh-Hadamard transform gives the Grover diffusion operatorIt is the reflection in the line through . The product of these two reflection operators is a rotation matrix by toward the marked quantum state:Thus the Born rule gives . Choose a nonnegative integer nearest to . Rounding changes the angle from by at most , soEach Grover search algorithm iteration uses one marked-state phase oracle query; all other gates are known. A final quantum measurement in the computational basis therefore produces a uniformly chosen marked item, conditional on success, with probability better than one half when . This uses the supplied marked count to select the stopping time; an unknown needs an additional search schedule or counting procedure. If , no oracle query is needed; if , no marked item exists, so a successful search is impossible.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 324 4 a ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Label the measured vertex of the four-cycle by , its two neighbours by , and the opposite vertex by . The edges are . By the definition of a graph state,All Controlled-Z gates commute. Conditioning on the computational basis value of vertex , the factors on edges and act on their other endpoints as and , since . The remaining edges form the three-vertex path :The Born rule gives probability one half for either result. Normalizing provesThis is computational-basis measurement of a graph-state vertex: remove the measured vertex and apply a known Pauli Z gate byproduct to each neighbour. The chosen labels specify precisely which factors occur; any vertex of the square can serve as vertex by relabelling.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 32C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Taking along a coordinate axis gives . Taking for gives . Combining this anticommutator relation with the specified commutator givesand contraction with provesThe operators for spin angular momentum, , satisfy and , identifying spin . The usual irreducible spin space is two-dimensional; the assumptions also allow repeated copies of it if no Hilbert-space dimension is specified.
Since is Hermitian and squares to , are Hermitian, , and . They are its spectral projectors. WriteEach nonzero term is a scalar multiple of a normalized eigenstate with eigenvalue . The Born rule gives, for normalized ,If , expectation of gives . Taking yields .