Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 342 3 e Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let . Reversing three mutually anticommuting Majoranas changes sign, soMoving through the three factors givesThus and obey exactly the algebra of two Majorana fermion operators. Their exchange is implemented bywhich conjugates one into the other, up to the orientation sign, just like a Majorana braiding operator.
Ordinary braids permute the elementary with signs. Part (d) implements by braids and parity measurements, and conjugation by this unitary maps an elementary Majorana to a Hermitian cubic monomial of the other three. Repeating this operation grows or shrinks an odd monomial by two factors, while ordinary braids place the desired indices in the active positions. By induction, every Hermitian odd monomial in can be reached from , with factors of inserted according to its degree to make it Hermitian. Hence braids plus suitable fermion-parity measurements map, in their action on ,