Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / iii / Paper 60 / 1 / ii

Uhlmann's theorem identifies quantum fidelity with the largest absolute overlap of purifications of a density operator. Choose a common reference Hilbert space $R$ of dimension at least that of the original system. Thenwhere $|u⟩,|v⟩\in {\mathcal{H}}_A\otimes {\mathcal{H}}_R$ have reduced density operators ${\rho }_A,{\sigma }_A$. One purification may be fixed in advance: the maximum is over the other, with the freedom to apply a unitary on the reference system. This is the unitary freedom of purification. Enlarging the reference by unused dimensions does not change the maximum.

Take maximizing purifications $|u⟩,|v⟩$ of ${\rho }_{AB},{\sigma }_{AB}$ on $ABR$. Their overlap has magnitude $F({\rho }_{AB},{\sigma }_{AB})$. Regard these same vectors as purifications of ${\rho }_A,{\sigma }_A$ with reference system $BR$. They are candidates in the larger optimization, so Uhlmann's theorem givesThis is monotonicity of quantum fidelity under partial trace: discarding a system cannot make two states more distinguishable according to their quantum fidelity.