Past exam of the theoretical physics II course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / 3

An ensemble with normalized quantum states $|{\psi }_a⟩$ and probabilities $p_a\ge 0$, ${\sum }_a{p}_a=1$, has density matrixEach rank-one projector is Hermitian, so ${\rho }^{†}=\rho$. Taking the trace in any orthonormal basis givesIt is also positive: $⟨v|\rho |v⟩={\sum }_a{p}_a|⟨{\psi }_a|v⟩{|}^2\ge 0$. Its eigenvalues ${\lambda }_a$ are therefore nonnegative and sum to one. Hencewith equality exactly when one eigenvalue is one and the others are zero. Thus the purity of a density operator distinguishesEquivalently, a pure state has ${\rho }^2=\rho$ and rank one. In a $d$-dimensional Hilbert space, purity is at least $1/d$, attained by the maximally mixed state $I/d$.

The fixed-particle-number sector is spanned by $|1⟩=c_1^{†}|0⟩$ and $|2⟩=c_2^{†}|0⟩$. In this basis,The relevant quantum Gibbs state is normalized within this two-dimensional sector, not over all particle numbers. With $\beta =(k_{B}T{)}^{-1}$ and $x=\beta t$, the exponential of a Pauli vector givesThereforeIts eigenstates are $|\pm ⟩=(|1⟩\pm |2⟩)/\sqrt{2}$, with energies $\mp t$ and probabilities $p_{\pm }=e^{\pm x}/(2\cosh x)$. These are nonnegative and sum to one, so the matrix is Hermitian and has trace one. Its purity of a density operator isFor $t\ne 0$, the zero-temperature limit is the pure ground-state projector,with purity one. As $T\to \infty$, $x\to 0$ and $\rho \to I/2$, with purity $1/2$. At every strictly positive finite temperature and finite $t$, both eigenvalues are nonzero, so the state is mixed. If $t=0$, the two levels are degenerate and the Gibbs state is $I/2$ at all temperatures, including its zero-temperature limit.

Using dimensionless Von Neumann entropy, $S=-\mathrm{Tr}(\rho \ln \rho )$, givesFor nonzero $t$, $S\to 0$ as $T\to 0$, while $S\to \ln 2$ as $T\to \infty$. More precisely, the high-temperature expansion is $S=\ln 2-x^2/2+O(x^4)$, and the low-temperature form is $S\sim (1+2|x|)e^{-2|x|}$. The thermodynamic entropy includes an overall factor $k_B$.

Fix the mode ordering with the $b^{†}$ operator before the $c^{†}$ operator, as in the given state. In the sector with one fermion in each subsystem, use the ordered basisThe state vector is $v=(1/2,1/\sqrt{2},0,1/2{)}^T$, whose squared norm is one. Thus the global density matrix is the rank-one projectorIt has trace one and satisfies ${\rho }_{BC}^2={\rho }_{BC}$, so the global state is pure.

Take the partial trace over $B$. The conditional vectors in $C$ are $v_1=(1/2,1/\sqrt{2}{)}^T$ for $B_1$ and $v_2=(0,1/2{)}^T$ for $B_2$. Therefore the reduced density matrix isIts determinant is $1/16$, giving eigenvaluesBoth are positive; in particular, $\mathrm{Tr}{\rho }_C^2=7/8<1$, so the reduced state is mixed despite global purity. The entanglement entropy is obtained by diagonalizing this reduced matrix and evaluatingFor a globally pure bipartite state this equals the entropy of either reduced subsystem. No numerical evaluation is needed.