Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 323 1 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the normalized Choi state , with . If is an entanglement-breaking channel, its action on this particular bipartite input makes a separable quantum state.
Conversely, suppose , with local density operators . The Choi reconstruction formula givesBecause is trace preserving, , so . Thus the form a POVM and the channel is a measure-and-prepare channel.
For any bipartite input , define the positive, possibly unnormalized reference operatorsIts output is . Since , normalizing each nonzero expresses this as a convex combination of product states. Hence every output is separable, proving the separable Choi-state criterion for entanglement breaking.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 339 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Suppose in the capped simplex has a coordinate strictly between zero and one. Since is an integer, it cannot have exactly one such coordinate: the other coordinates would contribute an integer sum. Hence there are distinct with .
Choose and set , where are standard basis vectors. Both perturbed vectors satisfy the coordinate bounds and have the same coordinate sum. They are distinct and , so is not an extreme point.
Conversely, every zero-one vector in this convex polytope is an extreme point. If it were a nontrivial convex combination of two feasible vectors, each coordinate equal to zero would force both corresponding coordinates to be zero, and each coordinate equal to one would force both to be one. Thus the two vectors would equal the original one. The extreme points are therefore exactly the indicators of -element subsets.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 339 1 a Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
Each map is an affine function. For , the pointwise maximum of convex functions satisfiesso is convex.
A vector is a subgradient of a convex function at whenfor every . Choose any active index . Thenand hence . More generally, every convex combination of the active vectors is a subgradient, and in fact
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 1 30K c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let the value function at time be the greatest conditional expected terminal utility attainable from wealth . Independence of the innovations gives the Bellman equationfor . A policy obtained from the maximizing choices is admissible because each time- holding is a predictable process, hence is known before is observed.
We prove the claimed properties by backward induction. They hold at because is increasing and concave. Suppose they hold at time . For fixed , the mapis increasing because , and taking a supremum preserves this inequality.
For concavity, let and be optimal at wealths and . For , use the admissible portfolioThe next wealth is the same convex combination of the next wealths generated from and . ThereforeThis completes the induction and proves monotonicity and concavity of a portfolio value function.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 4 22F b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Put , so . We show that the norm closure of the convex hull of every tailcontains zero. If it did not, the Hahn-Banach separation theorem would give a bounded linear functional , a real number , and, after multiplying by a complex scalar if necessary,for every in that closed convex hull. In particular for all . By the Riesz representation theorem, for some , contradicting .
Consequently, for every there is a finite convex combinationwith . DefineThen every is a convex combination of terms of the original sequence andThis is Mazur lemma in the present Hilbert-space setting.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 325 4 Solution 2026-09-28
For particle positions , the two-particle Schrodinger equation isWrite for the localized wave packet and . Neglecting packet spreading and branch overlap, the initial product state evolves branchwise asup to phases generated independently on the two particles. These branch-dependent phases generally cannot be separated into one phase depending only on and one depending only on , so the Newtonian gravitational potential energy creates gravitationally induced entanglement.
If is much smaller than the other separations, remove their nearly common phase and retain onlyThe state is approximatelyIts concurrence is , so it becomes maximally entangled first at . For ,Thus the near-maximal entanglement time is about within the stated approximation.
A single prescribed classical gravitational potential gives a Hamiltonian of the form . Its evolution factorizes as and preserves every initial product state, so it cannot generate this entanglement. A semiclassical mean field sourced only by expectation values likewise gives each particle a local one-body potential and does not provide a quantum mediator carrying branch correlations.
An entanglement witness is a Hermitian operator whose expectation is nonnegative on every separable state but negative on at least one entangled state. At , defineThe largest Schmidt coefficient of is , so every product state in the four-dimensional branch subspace satisfies . By closure under convex combinations, for every separable mixture, whereasA negative measured value therefore certifies entanglement. Under the assumptions that the masses began unentangled and interacted only through gravity, such certification would show that the mediator can transmit quantum coherence; it would be evidence against a purely classical gravitational channel and for the quantum nature of gravity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 343 2 b Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
The Quantum de Finetti theorem says that the fixed- reduced density matrix of an exchangeable -particle state approachesas . Finite versions bound the trace norm error by a constant of order . On a bipartite lattice, the corresponding two-sublattice form is a mixtureThis is the mean-field ansatz from the quantum de Finetti theorem.
The bond energy is a linear functional of . A convex combination cannot have energy below its lowest product component, so it remains only to minimizeThe Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives , with equality for pure antiparallel vectors. This reproduces the Néel state and per bond found in part (a).
Yes. The limiting state saturates the de Finetti mean-field lower bound: the minimizing product state belongs to the allowed de Finetti mixture, and the finite-de-Finetti error tends to zero as . At finite the theorem gives only an approximation; entanglement and correlated fluctuations can lower the energy below the product-state value by corrections that vanish in the infinite-coordination limit.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 323 2 i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
A bipartite density operator is a separable quantum state when it has a convex combination decompositioninto product states. A state for which no such decomposition exists is an entangled state.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 323 2 v Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
At the proposed boundary , the identity from part (iv) yieldsBoth and are convex combinations of product states, so is a separable quantum state. For , the state is a convex combination of and the maximally mixed product state , and is therefore separable.
For the converse, the partial transpose of the maximally entangled projector is , where is the swap operator. ThereforeOn the antisymmetric subspace, has eigenvalue , so the corresponding eigenvalue of iswhich is negative exactly when . The positive partial transpose criterion then proves that is entangled. Thus
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 323 4 c i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
If , then and the desired continuity bound is immediate, so assume . Apply the positive-negative decomposition of a Hermitian operator toBecause and , one hasThus is positive with trace one, hence is a density operator. DefineIt is a convex combination of states. The equation giveswhich is likewise positive and has trace one.