Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2009 / iii / Paper 50 / 3 / c / Solution

Let $\mathcal{P}$ be the pinching map determined by the projectors, and put $\sigma =\mathcal{P}(\rho )$. 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 $\rho$ is contained in that of $\sigma$. Indeed, if $v$ lies in the kernel of $\sigma$, positivity givesEvery summand is zero. Since ${\sum }_i{P}_i=I$, also ${\rho }^{1/2}v=0$, and thus $v$ is in the kernel of $\rho$. Therefore the logarithm of $\sigma$ may be used on its support without an infinite relative-entropy term.

The operator $\sigma$ is block diagonal, so each $P_i$ commutes with $\log \sigma$ 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 $\rho =\sigma$. 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.