Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / iii / Paper 323 / 3

The absolute value of an operator, trace norm, and operator norm are respectivelyThe positive square root of an operator makes $|L|$ well defined. Its eigenvalues $s_j\ge 0$ are the singular values of $L$, so $\Vert L{\Vert }_1={\sum }_j{s}_j$ and $\Vert L{\Vert }_{\mathrm{op}}={\max }_j{s}_j$.

Use the polar decomposition of a bounded operator $L=U|L|$, with the given unitary operator $U$. In an orthonormal eigenbasis $e_j$ for $|L|$,The operator norm assumption and unitarity imply $|⟨e_j|ZU|e_j⟩|\le \Vert Z{\Vert }_{\mathrm{op}}\le 1$. The triangle inequality therefore yields the required trace estimate:Choosing $Z=U^{†}$ attains equality, which also gives the finite-dimensional trace duality formula $\Vert L{\Vert }_1={\max }_{\Vert Z{\Vert }_{\mathrm{op}}\le 1}|\mathrm{Tr}(ZL)|$. A singular $L$ causes no difficulty: in a finite-dimensional square space the polar factor can be extended to a unitary operator on the complementary subspaces.

Let $\Gamma =T_B$ denote the partial transpose. The partial transpose of a maximally entangled projector iswhere $S$ is the swap operator, satisfying $S^{†}S=I$ and $\Vert S{\Vert }_{\mathrm{op}}=1$. If $\sigma$ has positive partial transpose, then ${\sigma }^{\Gamma }$ is a positive operator of trace one, hence $\Vert {\sigma }^{\Gamma }{\Vert }_1=1$.

For a pure state ${\varphi }^{+}=|\Phi ⟩⟨\Phi |$, the unsquared quantum fidelity obeys $F({\varphi }^{+},\sigma {)}^2=⟨\Phi |\sigma |\Phi ⟩$. Using the trace-adjoint identity for partial transpose and part (i),The overlap is nonnegative, so taking its square root proves the PPT maximally entangled overlap bound:The product state $|00⟩⟨00|$ attains the bound, so it is sharp.

In the computational basis ordered as $00,01,10,11$, the Hermitian matrix isIts trace is one, and its eigenvalues are $(1+\alpha )/2$, $(1-\alpha )/2$, $0$, and $0$. Thus the remaining density operator condition, positivity, holds exactly when both nonzero candidates are nonnegative:This is the admissible parameter interval for the dephased Bell-state mixture.

A density operator is a pure state exactly when its matrix rank is one. Within the admissible interval from part (a), one of $(1+\alpha )/2$ and $(1-\alpha )/2$ must vanish. Therefore the pure-state parameters and vectors arewhere the Bell states are $|{\Phi }^{\pm }⟩=(|00⟩\pm |11⟩)/\sqrt{2}$. Equivalently, the purity of a density operator is $\mathrm{Tr}{\rho }_{AB}^2=(1+{\alpha }^2)/2$, reaching one exactly at these two endpoints.

Every separable quantum state has positive partial transpose. Here the partial transpose iswith eigenvalues $1/2,1/2,\alpha /2,-\alpha /2$. Any nonzero $\alpha$ therefore gives a negative eigenvalue, excluding a separable quantum state. At $\alpha =0$, the explicit decompositionis a mixture of product states. ConsequentlyOnly necessity of the positive partial transpose criterion is needed here; sufficiency at zero follows directly from the decomposition.