Generalized Bell basis 2026-10-07
For a primitive root of unity and labels modulo , the displayed maximally entangled states form an orthonormal basis. Inner products equal , by the geometric series. A nonprimitive root repeats phase labels and does not give a complete orthonormal basis.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ii Paper 2 18F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 4 18H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 66 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The root must be a primitive th root of unity, for example . The printed statement merely says th root; that is insufficient. With and , the states with and coincide. More generally, a root of order repeats the labels modulo . For the construction is trivial.
For a primitive root of unity, the generalized Bell basis obeysThe last equality follows from the finite geometric series: a nonzero exponent difference modulo has sum zero, while zero difference has sum . There are orthonormal vectors in an -dimensional Hilbert space, so they form a complete basis.
For qudit teleportation, Alice's input is . Alice and Bob share . Define the qudit shift and phase operators by and . Alice measures in the generalized Bell basis. On outcome , Bob's unnormalized state isAll outcomes have probability . Alice communicates and Bob applieswhich restores exactly. The protocol consumes one maximally entangled pair of -level systems, a local -outcome measurement, and a classical message with possibilities. For a fixed-length binary encoding, bits suffice. No measurement depends on the unknown amplitudes.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 3 18F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let be a splitting field of over . Its formal derivative isThe assumption on the characteristic of says that in . Any root of is nonzero, and hence . Thus and have no common root, so is a separable polynomial. Since it has degree and splits over , it has exactly distinct roots. This is the separability of roots of unity.
Fix a primitive root of unity . Define the th cyclotomic polynomial byIt is monic and has degree given by the Euler totient function . Partitioning all th roots of unity according to their exact multiplicative order gives the cyclotomic factorizationWe now prove by mathematical induction that . The base case is . If the result holds for every proper divisor of , thenis monic and belongs to . Polynomial division of by the monic integer polynomial produces a quotient and remainder in . The factorization over says that the remainder is zero and the quotient is , proving the claim.
It remains to prove irreducibility of cyclotomic polynomials. Let be a monic irreducible polynomial dividing , let be a root of , and write . We claim that is a root of for every prime number . Otherwise is a root of , so is a root of . Since is the minimal polynomial of over , Gauss lemma for polynomials givesAfter reduction of an integer polynomial modulo a prime, the Frobenius endomorphism givesChoose an irreducible factor of the nonconstant monic polynomial . Then , so . The cyclotomic factorization would then make divide over . This is impossible because its derivative is coprime to it when .
Thus for every prime . Iterating this fact over a prime factorization shows that whenever . These are all primitive th roots, soBecause divides , equality holds and . Hence every cyclotomic polynomial is irreducible over .
Finally, direct multiplication givesAlsoApplying the cyclotomic factorization to the two factors on the right givesand thereforeSince , cancellation yieldsThe thirtieth cyclotomic polynomial is irreducible over by the theorem just proved, so is irreducible.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 2 18G b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Let with . Thenand these elements are distinct because is a primitive root of unity. Thus the stabilizer of in the cyclic Galois group is trivial. The orbit-stabilizer form of the Fundamental theorem of Galois theory givessoMoreover,The fixed field of the whole Galois group is , and thereforeThis is the basic eigenvector mechanism behind a cyclic Kummer extension.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ii Paper 3 18H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The automorphisms are distinct and hence linearly independent as maps by the linear independence of distinct field embeddings. Therefore the operatoris not the zero map. Choose for which . Reindexing the sum and using givesThis is the Lagrange resolvent eigenvector for a cyclic field automorphism.
Let be the fixed field. Since , the element is a root ofIts orbit under isand these elements are distinct because and is a primitive root of unity. Hence the minimal polynomial has at least distinct roots. It also divides the displayed degree- polynomial, so
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 18I b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let be primitive and let be the finite subgroup of that they generate. By part a, is cyclic. Its order is divisible by both and , hence by . On the other hand every element of has th power one, so the order of the cyclic group divides . Its order is therefore exactly , and a generator of is a primitive th root of unity in .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 4 20H c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Assume that is a primitive fifth root of unity. The cyclotomic field has degree four and signature . The Dirichlet unit theorem therefore gives free rankThe roots of unity in a rational cyclotomic field are the ten elements , so
For explicit units, has order ten, whileHence is a unit. It has infinite order because in the standard complex embeddingwhereas every root of unity has modulus one. Its image in the free factor is therefore nonzero and generates a finite-index subgroup of that factor. Consequentlyhas finite index in , as described by the unit group of the fifth cyclotomic field.
Qudit shift and phase operators 2026-10-07
For an -level qudit and primitive root of unity , these unitary operators obey and . The inverse of is , with the order reversed. These operators implement the receiver corrections in qudit teleportation.