Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2005 / iii / Paper 37 / 1 / b / Solution

Let a density operator on a Hilbert space ${\mathcal{H}}_S$ have the spectral decompositionIntroduce an auxiliary Hilbert space ${\mathcal{H}}_R$ with an orthonormal basis containing $r$ vectors $|j{⟩}_R$, and setThis vector has norm one. Its partial trace isThis explicitly constructs a purification of a density operator. The same construction works for an arbitrary trace-class density operator: its nonzero eigenvalues form a finite or countable summable family, and the displayed vector converges in the Hilbert space norm. The entropy inequality below is understood with finite Von Neumann entropies, avoiding undefined differences of infinities.

Apply this construction with $S=AB$ to obtain a joint pure state on $ABC$. The Schmidt decomposition across $AB:C$, $A:BC$ and $B:AC$ respectively givesNow apply Subadditivity of Von Neumann entropy to the reduced density matrices on $BC$ and $AC$:These inequalities say $S(A)-S(B)\le S(C)$ and $S(B)-S(A)\le S(C)$. Replacing $S(C)$ by $S(AB)$ proves the Araki–Lieb inequality:The subadditivity used here concerns the actual reduced density operators, rather than statistical independence. In particular it follows from nonnegativity of quantum relative entropy, sinceand similarly for $AC$. Thus no independence assumption on the purification of a density operator is needed.