Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2008 / iii / Paper 58 / 3 / i / Solution

The Schmidt decomposition theorem says that a normalized vector in the tensor product of two finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces can be writtenwhere both families are orthonormal. The numbers $\sqrt{{\lambda }_j}$ are its Schmidt coefficients. The Schmidt rank $r$ and coefficients, including multiplicities, are uniquely determined by the state; the local vectors may be changed within degenerate eigenspaces and by compensating phases. Zero coefficients may be appended to make $n_1$ terms, since $n_2\ge n_1$.

For a proof, form the reduced density matrix ${\rho }_1={\mathrm{Tr}}_2|\psi ⟩⟨\psi |$. It is a Hermitian matrix that is positive semidefinite, with trace one. The spectral theorem supplies an orthonormal basis $u_1,\dots ,u_{n_1}$ of eigenvectors with nonnegative eigenvalues ${\lambda }_j$. Define the unnormalized relative vectors in the second Hilbert space byCompleteness of the first orthonormal basis gives $|\psi ⟩={\sum }_j|u_j⟩|w_j⟩$. In any orthonormal basis $e_b$ of the second factor, the definition of the partial trace givesThus a zero eigenvalue gives $w_j=0$, and for each positive eigenvalue the vector $v_j=w_j/\sqrt{{\lambda }_j}$ has unit norm. Distinct such vectors are orthogonal by the same identity. Substituting them gives the required Schmidt decomposition, with at most $n_1$ nonzero terms.

Taking the other partial trace now givesTherefore the two reduced density matrices have identical nonzero eigenvalues, namely the squared Schmidt coefficients. This also proves uniqueness of the coefficient multiset and shows that the pure state is a product state exactly when $r=1$.