Entanglement swapping 2026-10-07
Two initial maximally entangled pairs and can be turned into an entangled pair by a generalized Bell basis measurement on , followed by a local correction at an endpoint using its classical label. This is qudit teleportation of , including its correlations with , to . The initial two pairs are consumed. Without the classical label, averaging the conditional endpoint states need not leave entanglement.
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 obeys
The 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 is
All outcomes have probability . Alice communicates and Bob applies
which 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.
Bob uses qudit teleportation to teleport his carrier to Clare through the pair . This transfers Bob's entanglement with Alice to Clare. Explicitly, Bob performs a generalized Bell basis measurement on . Contraction of the two initial pairs gives
The probability is for each outcome. Bob sends to Clare, who applies . Alice and Clare then share with certainty. This is entanglement swapping; neither an additional entangled pair nor a quantum transmission during the protocol is required.
The two initial pairs are consumed, and Bob's measured carriers cease to be entangled with . Without Bob's classical record, averaging the possible generalized Bell states leaves maximally mixed. Thus the conditional entanglement swapping does not supply faster-than-light communication.
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.