Partial transpose (${\rho }^{T_B}$)

In a fixed product basis, the partial transpose on subsystem $B$ sendsIt preserves Hermiticity and trace but need not preserve positivity on entangled inputs.

For $|{\Phi }_d⟩=d^{-1/2}{\sum }_j|jj⟩$, the partial transpose of its pure state projector is $S/d$, where $S$ is the swap operator. Expand in matrix units: $|i⟩⟨j|\otimes |i⟩⟨j|$ becomes $|i⟩⟨j|\otimes |j⟩⟨i|$.

A bipartite density operator has positive partial transpose when ${\rho }^{T_B}\ge 0$. Every separable quantum state has this property, since transposing one factor of a positive product state preserves positivity and the separable sum preserves it as well. The property does not depend on which local basis defines the transpose.

Every density operator $\sigma$ with positive partial transpose has squared quantum fidelity at most $1/d$ with a fixed maximally entangled state on $d\otimes d$. The partial transpose of a maximally entangled projector and the trace-adjoint identity for partial transpose express that squared overlap as $\mathrm{Tr}(S{\sigma }^{T_B})/d$. Since ${\sigma }^{T_B}$ is positive of trace one and the swap operator has operator norm one, trace duality gives the bound. A matching product state attains equality.

For bipartite operators $X,Y$ in a fixed product basis,Expand both operators in products of matrix units. On the transposed factor, the identity is $\mathrm{Tr}(AT)=\mathrm{Tr}(A^T{T}^T)$; bilinearity gives the bipartite result. It allows a negative partial transpose eigenvector to define an entanglement witness.