Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 48 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
They need a pre-shared entanglement resource that permits deterministic production of a Bell pair. In particular, one shared Bell pair and two classical bits suffice for exact quantum teleportation. This condition is stronger than merely having some entanglement.
Let Alice's input be , and let her system and Bob's system share . Use the Bell states and . Direct expansion givesAlice performs a projective measurement in this Bell basis and sends its two-bit outcome. Each outcome has probability . Bob applies respectively , recovering exactly, without either party knowing . Before he receives the outcome, his averaged state is , so the protocol does not communicate without the classical message. Alice's measurement consumes the input and the shared entanglement.
For necessity, exact transmission of every pure qubit means the induced quantum channel is the identity: pure-state projectors span the operator space, and a physical channel is linear. Alice can therefore prepare a Bell pair locally and transmit one half by the proposed protocol, leaving a Bell pair shared with Bob. The protocol would itself be a deterministic local operations and classical communication conversion of their resource into a Bell pair. This proves the exact teleportation resource criterion. With no shared entanglement, it is impossible: local operations and classical communication preserve separable quantum states, whereas the resulting Bell pair would be entangled.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 51 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Quantum teleportation transfers an arbitrary unknown qubit state to a separated receiver while using local operations and classical communication, rather than sending that input qubit. Alice and Bob first share one maximally entangled state of two qubits, such as a Bell pair; a shared spin singlet state is equivalent after a known local unitary operation.
Alice performs a joint Bell-basis measurement on the input qubit and her half of the pair. There are four possible outcomes. Bob's conditional qubit is the input state transformed by a known Pauli operator determined by that outcome. Alice sends the outcome as two classical bits, and Bob applies the inverse Pauli operator. Thus one shared Bell pair and two classical bits, together with local measurement and correction, transmit one unknown qubit exactly. The entangled resource is consumed.
The procedure does not produce a classical description of the unknown amplitudes and does not leave a second copy at Alice, so it respects the no-cloning theorem. Before receiving the classical outcome, Bob's reduced density matrix is , independent of the input; this respects the no-communication theorem. The next part proves the full identity-channel action, including inputs entangled with another system.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 66 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Quantum teleportation transfers the quantum state of an unknown qubit from a sender's carrier to a receiver's carrier. It also transfers correlations with any external reference. It does not determine classical amplitudes or send the original particle.
The standard deterministic protocol consumes one shared maximally entangled Bell pair and two classical bits from Alice to Bob. Alice performs a local Bell-basis measurement on the input and her half of the pair; Bob applies the corresponding local Pauli gate. The classical message is essential: before receiving it, Bob has the outcome-averaged density operator and cannot recover or detect the unknown state. The original input is consumed by the measurement, so quantum teleportation is compatible with the no-cloning theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 2 15D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let be Alice's unknown qubit, and label her half of the shared Bell state by and Bob's by . Alice applies a Controlled-NOT gate from the unknown qubit to , then a Hadamard gate to the unknown qubit. The three-qubit state becomesAlice measures her two qubits in the computational basis and sends the two classical outcomes to Bob. Bob applies , recovering with certainty. This is quantum teleportation; Alice never needs to know the state.
For the shared GHZ state, Charlie first applies a Hadamard gate to his qubit. ThenCharlie measures in the computational basis. Outcome leaves Alice and Bob with ; outcome leaves , which either party converts to by applying after Charlie reports the outcome. Thus
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 1 10D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Alice performs a projective Bell-basis measurement on her qubits and . Outcome occurs with probability and leaves Bob's qubit inAlice sends the two classical bits to Bob. He applies the inverse Pauli operationrecovering 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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ii Paper 2 15D a ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Alice holds the unknown input and one qubit of a shared pair; Bob holds the other. Alice performs a Bell measurement on her two qubits and sends its two-bit outcome to Bob. For outcomes
, Bob's qubit is respectivelyup to global phase. Bob applies respectively and obtains . This is quantum teleportation.
, Bob's qubit is respectivelyup to global phase. Bob applies respectively and obtains . This is quantum teleportation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 4 10D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let the unknown qubit be . Alice holds this qubit and her half of the shared Bell state , while Bob holds the other half.
Alice performs a measurement of her two qubits in the Bell basis and sends the two-bit outcome to Bob through the classical channel. For the shared state , the teleportation with the psi-plus Bell state correction table isup to physically irrelevant global phases. Here and are the Pauli X gate and Pauli Z gate. After the indicated correction, Bob's qubit is . This is quantum teleportation; no physical copy of the unknown qubit is sent.
Past exam of the quantum information course of the University of Cambridge 2012 Paper 1 3 c Solution 2026-10-20
For quantum teleportation, Alice holds an unknown input and one member of a shared pair; Bob holds qubit 3. Alice applies a CNOT gate from 1 to 2 and a Hadamard gate on 1, then measures both in the computational basis. Expansion gives the Bell-basis teleportation identityEvery outcome pair has probability , independently of the input. Alice sends these two classical bits, and Bob appliesThe order of the two corrections matters only by a global sign for the doubly nonzero outcome. The transformation also transfers entanglement with an untouched reference, because the identity is linear in the input amplitudes.
Before receiving the bits, Bob must average over all four Pauli-related states, obtaining for any input. Thus teleportation requires classical communication and does not send information faster than light. The original input is consumed by Alice's measurement, so no second copy remains and the no-cloning theorem is respected. Ideal qubit teleportation consumes one shared Bell pair and two classical bits, as well as local gates and measurements. Imperfect entanglement, gate error, detection error or lost classical records reduce practical fidelity; teleportation transfers the quantum state, not the underlying material particle.
Past exam of the quantum information course of the University of Cambridge 2014 Paper 1 3 b Solution 2026-10-20
In quantum teleportation, Alice transfers an arbitrary unknown qubit using one shared Bell pair and two bits of classical communication. Define , with . Regrouping the initial three-qubit state into this Bell basis givesAlice's Bell-basis measurement selects each label with probability . She sends to Bob, who applies the inverse , restoring . The correction depends on the measurement label, not on the unknown amplitudes. Before the message, Bob's average state is , independent of the input; quantum no-signalling therefore prevents superluminal communication. The shared pair is consumed and Alice does not retain an independent copy, in agreement with the no-cloning theorem.
The Bouwmeester quantum teleportation experiment used photon polarization, a down-conversion entangled pair, a beam-splitter Bell-state analyzer and coincidence-conditioned output polarization measurements. Temporal indistinguishability of the two analyzer photons was essential. Its successful selected Bell outcome demonstrated the state transfer, rather than a deterministic implementation of all four outcomes.[ref]
Experimental quantum teleportation by Dik Bouwmeester and others. 1997, experimental realization and Figures 1–5
The general experimental tasks are to distribute entanglement, prepare and synchronize the input, perform a sufficiently discriminating joint measurement, communicate the label and apply or account for the correction. A demonstration must test nonorthogonal input states, not merely transfer a known classical basis label. Finite efficiency, accidental coincidences, distinguishability and phase drift reduce success probability or teleportation fidelity. Postselected verification, a heralded usable output and unconditional deterministic teleportation are distinct experimental claims.
Past exam of the quantum information course of the University of Cambridge 2015 Paper 1 3 a Solution 2026-10-20
A bipartite pure state is entangled when it is not a product state. Its Schmidt decomposition is , where and . More than one nonzero coefficient means entanglement. The two reduced density matrices have the same nonzero spectrum, and their Von Neumann entropy is the pure-state entanglement entropy. A maximally entangled pair of qubits has one bit of this entropy.
For mixed states, classical correlations are not sufficient: a separable quantum state is a convex mixture , and entanglement means that no such decomposition exists. A reduced entropy alone no longer measures mixed-state entanglement. An entanglement witness or a suitable separability criterion can detect it.
Local unitary transformations preserve the Schmidt spectrum. More general local operations and classical communication can discard entanglement but cannot freely create it from a separable input. Nielsen's pure-state conversion theorem gives the exact deterministic criterion: is possible precisely when . In decreasing order, every partial sum for the input is no larger than the corresponding output sum, with equal totals. The direction matters: a uniform spectrum can be converted to a concentrated one; a product state cannot deterministically become a Bell pair.
A probabilistic local filter can concentrate a partially entangled pair. For with , Alice's successful operator produces equal amplitudes. The outcome is a Bell pair with probability ; a complementary operator supplies a complete measurement. Failure is heralded, so there is no deterministic creation of a more entangled pair. This illustrates entanglement concentration.
Many-copy entanglement distillation and entanglement dilution connect noisy or nonuniform resources with standard Bell pairs. Entanglement enables quantum teleportation and other protocols, but classical communication is still required; the no-communication theorem excludes message transmission merely by choosing a distant local measurement.
Past exam of the quantum information course of the University of Cambridge 2016 Paper 1 3 b Solution 2026-10-20
Quantum teleportation transfers an unknown qubit state using a previously shared Bell pair, local operations and two classical bits. It requires no description of the unknown complex amplitudes and produces no extra copy.
Let the input be , and let Alice and Bob share . Alice applies a controlled-NOT gate from to , then a Hadamard gate to . Expanding the circuit gives the Bell-basis teleportation identity in computational-output form:Her projective measurement yields each bit pair with probability . She sends the two classical bits, and Bob applies to recover . The order is the inverse of the displayed conditional operator; interchanging these Pauli corrections changes only an irrelevant global phase when both bits are one.
Before receiving the bits, Bob hasThus teleportation respects the no-communication theorem and cannot transmit the usable unknown state faster than the classical message. Alice's input has been measured, and the shared entanglement resource has been consumed, in agreement with the no-cloning theorem. The protocol transfers the state, not the material particle initially carrying it.
A physical implementation must distribute and preserve an entangled pair, implement a Bell-basis measurement and transmit its result to a controllable output system. Imperfect entanglement, lost outcomes and noisy corrections reduce quantum fidelity; a heralded probabilistic experiment must report its success probability separately from conditional fidelity. Ideal deterministic teleportation assumes every Bell outcome can be identified and corrected.
The no-cloning theorem states that no fixed deterministic quantum operation can perfectly duplicate every unknown pure state. For a unitary copier with a fixed blank, suppose it cloned two normalized vectors . Preservation of inner products would give , impossible for a nonorthogonal distinct pair with overlap strictly between zero and one in modulus. Including an environment does not help: its final overlap has modulus at most one, so one would require . Thus a universal perfect copier is impossible. Orthogonal known alternatives do not contradict this restriction.
Label the three qubits as input , Alice's entangled qubit and Bob's qubit . Initially their joint state isThe controlled-NOT gate from to changes this toApply and to the first qubit and group by Alice's two computational-basis outcomes. The result isIn expanded form the last two Bob factors are and . Their Alice labels must be and ; the repeated labels in the source are printing errors.
Alice measures her two qubits and sends the two classical bits to Bob. Each outcome has probability and Bob's conditional state is . He applies to recover the input, up to physically irrelevant global phase. Explicitly the corrections for are . This is quantum teleportation: Alice's input is consumed by measurement, so no second surviving copy is created. Before her classical message, Bob's reduced density operator is , independent of the input, so the protocol also supplies no faster-than-light communication.
A pure bipartite quantum state is entangled if it cannot be written as a tensor product . More generally a mixed quantum state is entangled if its density matrix cannot be expressed as a convex mixture of product density matrices. Two applications are quantum teleportation, which transfers an unknown qubit using a shared entangled pair plus classical communication, and superdense coding, which uses a shared entangled pair and transmission of one qubit to communicate two classical bits. Neither permits faster-than-light communication.
Pauli gate Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
A Pauli gate applies a Pauli matrix as a unitary operator to a qubit. The Pauli X gate, Pauli Y gate and Pauli Z gate are common correction operations in quantum teleportation.
Quantum information theory Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
Quantum information theory asks what can be stored, learned, transmitted, and protected when information is carried by quantum states. Its basic objects are density operators, measurement in quantum measurements, and quantum channels; its resources include qubits, entanglement, and classical communication. Specifying the task matters: preserving an unknown quantum state, recovering a classical bit, and estimating a probability amplitude are different demands on the same physical system.
A particularly beautiful feature is that knowing the whole need not mean knowing its parts. A Bell state is a completely specified pure state, yet either qubit alone has a maximally uncertain reduced density matrix. Conversely, two systems can share perfectly matching measurement records without entanglement. The worked Bell correlations versus a classical mixture comparison separates these possibilities using only two choices of Pauli measurement.
This viewpoint makes limitations useful design rules. Schumacher compression asks how much quantum memory a source needs; Holevo's theorem limits the classical information extractable from an encoding; quantum error correction protects states against noise. Quantum teleportation uses shared entanglement and classical communication to transfer an unknown state. Its resource accounting respects both quantum no-signalling and the no-cloning theorem.
Remote state preparation Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
Remote state preparation uses a shared entangled state, local quantum measurements and classical communication to prepare a state known to the sender at the receiver. The sender can tailor the measurement to the desired state, so restricted state families can require less communication than quantum teleportation. A real great-circle family of qubit states admits one-bit remote preparation of real qubit states.
Ideal corrected quantum teleportation transfers an input system to the receiver while preserving its entire joint density operator with an arbitrary reference. Expand a joint pure state as . Every teleportation branch acts with the same known correction on each system basis vector and does nothing to the reference vectors; undoing that correction restores the complete sum. Linearity extends the result to mixed states. The sender's measured carrier no longer retains the original reference correlations.
Suppose a perfect Bell pair is used for quantum teleportation, but the sender cannot distinguish the and Bell-basis measurement outcomes and guesses their labels uniformly. Each of the four actual outcomes has probability . Either ambiguous outcome gives an incorrect Pauli Z gate correction with conditional probability , so the total phase-flip probability is . The unconditional output is therefore the displayed phase-flip channel. For , its teleportation fidelity is . It ranges from on the Bloch sphere equator to at its poles. This averages the output density operators, including the ambiguous rounds.