Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / ii / Paper 1 / 10D / c

Suppose first that the stated unitary and environment states exist. Preservation of the inner product givesThe environment states are normalized, so the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives $|⟨e_0|e_1⟩|\le 1$. Therefore

Conversely, writeand assume $|a|\le |b|$. If $b\ne 0$, put $c=a/b$, so $|c|\le 1$, and chooseThen $⟨e_0|e_1⟩=c$ and the desired output vectors have inner product $bc=a$, exactly matching the input vectors. If $b=0$, the inequality forces $a=0$, and one may take $|e_0⟩=|e_1⟩=|0⟩$.

In either case the input pair and output pair have the same Gram matrix. The isometry taking one pair to the other extends to a unitary matrix, so the required $U$ exists. Hencewhich is the environment-assisted two-state pure-state transformation criterion.