Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 34 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The PDF's first Pauli term contains an undefined . For the stated depolarizing channel, use , consistently with the other two terms. This is the minimal typographical correction needed to define the intended Pauli channel.
Write using its Bloch vector. The Pauli matrices satisfy for and for . Thus conjugating by each nonidentity Pauli matrix leaves one Bloch component unchanged and reverses the other two. Summing the three conjugates givesSubstitution yieldsso the Pauli-mixture parametrization of qubit depolarization, with here the total error probability, givesThere is also a genuine range error in the printed claim. For its full assumption, , and holds exactly when . For example gives ; on the output is , with negative Bloch component. No could produce this output from that input, since its component would be .
The corrected channel is still completely positive in the larger range: its original Pauli probabilities are . This is depolarizing noise weight above one; the formula with is not a convex mixture with weights , but it has a valid random unitary channel representation. The subsequent parts can therefore be solved both in the printed regime and in the actual parameter range.