Magic basis Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-10-24
A Bell basis with phases chosen so that local special-unitary transformations of the two qubits are represented by real four-dimensional rotations. For one standard ordering it is . Permuting these vectors changes generator conventions but preserves the invariant concurrence .[ref]
The specified Bell-state phases giveThereforeThe sum contains complex squares, not squared moduli. Define and . Normalization gives , so the triangle inequality ensures .
The characteristic polynomial is . HenceHere logarithms are natural and means its limiting value zero. Using logarithms to base two gives entropy in bits instead. Product states have , spectrum and entropy zero; maximally entangled states have , spectrum and entropy .
This phased Bell basis is a magic basis, and is the pure-state concurrence. The paper's ordering is a permutation of the usual magic-basis ordering, which leaves unchanged.[ref]
In the printed phased Bell basis, the actions on its four kets areEach matrix is purely imaginary and antisymmetric. Let have these four basis kets as columns in the computational basis. The infinitesimal generators of the standard rotation areUsing the displayed actions gives the phase-convention-specific identitiesThey are real antisymmetric matrices. A finite rotation on therefore acts on the magic-basis coefficient vector as , with . ConsequentlyIt preserves concurrence and hence preserves the reduced eigenvalues and entanglement entropy. A general operation adds a common phase to ; that changes by a phase of twice the angle but leaves unchanged. The real-rotation description of local transformations is a characteristic property of the magic basis.[ref]
Entanglement of a Pair of Quantum Bits by Scott Hill and William K. Wootters. After Eq.(6), real magic-basis matrices and independent local transformations
As an independent direct check, a local unitary sends to , which is a unitary similarity transformation and cannot change its spectrum. This local-unitary invariance of entanglement entropy also explains why merely rotating one subsystem cannot create entanglement.
Scott Hill Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
A theoretical physicist who coauthored the 1997 paper introducing concurrence with William Wootters. The calculation uses a specially phased Bell basis to connect the coefficients of a two-qubit quantum state to its quantum entanglement. It provided an exact result for a class of mixed states, making entanglement quantification more concrete than a qualitative claim that two systems are correlated.[ref]
William Wootters Created 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-11-05
A theoretical physicist who, with Scott Hill, developed a calculable measure of quantum entanglement for pairs of qubits. Their 1997 work introduced the concurrence approach and obtained an exact preparation-cost formula for mixed states of rank at most two, with evidence for a broader extension. This turned an optimization over pure-state decompositions into a practical calculation for an important class of small quantum systems.[ref]
Entanglement of a Pair of Quantum Bits by Scott Hill and William K. Wootters. Abstract and equations (3)–(6): rank-two result and magic-basis construction
