Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 33 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Successive uses of the same quantum channel mean coupling to a fresh vacuum environment each time, or resetting the environment between uses. They do not mean repeatedly applying the dilation unitary to one unreinitialized two-state environment. Direct composition givesInductively, with ,For , this tends to the pure ground state , whose Von Neumann entropy is zero. For , the channel is the identity: the state remains and its Von Neumann entropy remains . Thus the repeated amplitude damping limit must include this no-decay exception.
A zero-Von Neumann entropy output means there is no uncertainty about the final atomic state. It does not mean that the receiver has gained information about the initial preparation: all initial states have the same limiting output, so their distinguishability has been erased from the atom. Under the global unitary evolution, information is carried into the environment. Without observing an emission record, this is a nonselective dissipative process, not an inference about which input was sent. Indeed, starting from the excited pure state, one intermediate output has Von Neumann entropy equal to the binary entropy of , which is positive for ; the atom's Von Neumann entropy need not decrease monotonically during the approach to the final ground state.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 65 2 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Iterating the Bloch-vector map of amplitude damping givesThereforeThe repeated amplitude damping limit describes irreversible relaxation of the excited state into the ground state , with energy transferred to the environment and no compensating thermal excitation. At , the ground state is reached in one action. At the endpoint , the quantum channel is the identity and the initial Bloch vector remains unchanged; the ground-state conclusion requires nonzero damping.