Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / ii / Paper 1 / 10D (Quantum Information and Computation)

Write $|\alpha ⟩=a|0⟩+b|1⟩$. Expanding in the orthonormal Bell basis of systems $CA$ gives the Bell-basis teleportation identityThus, uniformly for $x,z\in \{0,1\}$,The states are unique because the four Bell states are an orthonormal basis of the two-qubit space. In particular,

Alice performs a projective Bell-basis measurement on her qubits $C$ and $A$. Outcome $(x,z)$ occurs with probability $1/4$ and leaves Bob's qubit inAlice sends the two classical bits $(x,z)$ to Bob. He applies the inverse Pauli operationrecovering $|\alpha ⟩$ exactly, up to an irrelevant global phase. This is quantum teleportation: only local operations and classical communication are used, while the shared Bell pair supplies the entanglement resource.

No. Before any operation, Bob's reduced density matrix is $I/2$, independent of $|\alpha ⟩$. Any trace-preserving operation performed only by Alice leaves Bob's reduced state unchanged when her uncommunicated outcomes are averaged. This is the no-communication theorem, or quantum no-signalling.

If Bob received the unknown state, his reduced state would instead be the pure state $|\alpha ⟩⟨\alpha |$, which depends on Alice's input. That would let Alice signal by choosing different inputs, contradicting no-signalling. The two classical outcome bits are therefore essential.