Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 50 3 c Solution 2026-10-14
Let be the pinching map determined by the projectors, and put . This is a nonselective projective measurement; its projectors are its Kraus operators. We will prove the exact relative entropy of a pinched state identity.
First the support of is contained in that of . Indeed, if lies in the kernel of , positivity givesEvery summand is zero. Since , also , and thus is in the kernel of . Therefore the logarithm of may be used on its support without an infinite relative-entropy term.
The operator is block diagonal, so each commutes with on that support. Cyclicity of the trace givesExpand the quantum relative entropy:Its nonnegativity now proves the entropy increase under nonselective projective measurement:The equality case in nonnegativity of quantum relative entropy says equality holds exactly when . Equivalently,Thus equality means the state already has no coherence between distinct measurement blocks. It need not be diagonal inside a block of rank greater than one.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 50 3 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Take the rank-one orthogonal projections . Their pinching map givesThis has exactly the specified diagonal entries and no off-diagonal entries. Applying the entropy increase under nonselective projective measurement proved in part (c) therefore givesWriting , the output Von Neumann entropy is the Shannon entropy . Equality holds precisely when was already diagonal in this basis.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 66 5 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Choose an orthonormal basis of the joint -dimensional Hilbert space whose first vector is the given purification of a density operator . Apply rank-one dephasing to in this basis, and denote the resulting diagonal probabilities by . Their first entry isThe preceding entropy increase under nonselective projective measurement and entropy bound with one prescribed probability yieldTherefore the quantum Fano inequality isThe quantity is the entanglement fidelity of on ; it is already a squared overlap, so it is , rather than , that enters the binary entropy. The argument is an instance of the entropy bound from overlap with a pure state in dimension . At the output is the original pure state and its Von Neumann entropy is zero. For the system is trivial and the same zero-entropy conclusion holds without evaluating .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 66 5 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Put . The rank-one dephasing is . If , positivity givesso . The kernel of is exactly the span of these zero-probability basis vectors and is therefore contained in the kernel of . Taking orthogonal complements proves support inclusion under rank-one dephasing:Here the support of a positive operator is the orthogonal complement of its kernel.
On that support, is diagonal in the measurement basis, givingConsequently the relative-entropy identity for rank-one dephasing isKlein's inequality gives , since both density operators have trace one. For singular , first restrict to where is positive definite, replace by , and let . The support inclusion ensures that the limit is finite. ThusThis proves entropy increase under nonselective projective measurement using Klein's inequality. Equality holds exactly when , so the original density operator was already diagonal in the chosen basis.