Past exam of the quantum information course of the University of Cambridge 2015 Paper 1 1 b Solution 2026-10-20
Put and . The detector rotation is real and orthogonal, so its inverse is the same transformation. Substituting it givesThus the requested orthonormal system states areThe pure density operator has not changed: this is only a different Schmidt decomposition of a maximally entangled state. But choosing a nonselective projective measurement in this new detector basis gives a different operation and generally a different state:For an explicit matrix in the original ordered basis, write and . ThenAt the entries and are , whereas they vanish in . Nevertheless, the system and detector individually each have reduced density matrix for either mixture.
This is the preferred-basis problem: the correlated state alone does not specify which detector observable becomes a stable classical record. Arbitrarily declaring collapse in a Schmidt basis changes the physical prediction. The actual detector interaction and environment must supply the basis selection, rather than a mere choice of notation.
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 2 Solution 2026-10-20
Use the thin singular value decomposition , with , unitary and nonnegative. Expanding its entries givesThe columns of and of are orthonormal, establishing the Schmidt decomposition. Bob's basis uses the complex-conjugated columns of . Omitting that conjugation would not reproduce the coefficient matrix. The squared Schmidt coefficients are the eigenvalues of ; equivalently and . The two reduced density matrices are and , which have the same nonzero eigenvalues.
The printed coefficient slightly rounds a normalized state: each squared norm is . Normalize before calculating an entropy. For the two states, the resulting Gram matrices are approximatelyFor a trace-one two-dimensional Hermitian matrix with diagonal entry and off-diagonal entry , its eigenvalues areSort them decreasingly and take square roots:The Von Neumann entropy is . is more entangled: its Schmidt weights are closer to equal and its reduced-state entropy is larger. Neither state is a product state or maximally entangled on its two-dimensional support.
By Nielsen's pure-state conversion theorem, deterministic LOCC conversion requires the input vector of squared Schmidt coefficients to be majorized by the output vector. Here and both sums are one, so . Therefore is possible deterministically; is not. Entanglement can be discarded by local operations but cannot increase deterministically for these pure inputs. Probabilistic concentration is a separate question and is allowed below.[ref]
Conditions for a class of entanglement transformations by Michael A. Nielsen. 1999 primary theorem: deterministic pure-state conversion and majorization
There is a dimensional qualification in the proposed measurement. Write . The two supplied measurement operators obeyThus their effects form a POVM on the occupied support, where is the identity. Alice's full space is three-dimensional, so these two operators alone do not sum to . A full-space completion is . It has zero probability on either input, so it changes none of the requested outcomes. Strictly, the POVM consists of the effects ; the specified additionally fix a quantum instrument and therefore the conditional states.
In the appropriate Schmidt basis for either input, write . The two outcomes have probabilitiesand normalized conditional statesThese formulas give both outcomes for each state by substituting its row of the table. For example,The two inputs have different Schmidt bases; the primed measurement basis is adapted separately to the state, as the question specifies, not one common unexamined laboratory basis.
For the outcome to be a maximally entangled state, its two amplitudes must be equal. HenceThe requested numerical results areThus has the larger success probability, consistent with its greater initial entanglement. The branch cannot be balanced in the allowed angle range for either nonmaximal input: it would require .
Success probability and conditional entanglement for the specified Schmidt-basis filter
. Original calculation with normalized printed coefficients. Each marked angle makes outcome 1 maximally entangled. Curves refer to the specified two-outcome instrument, not the optimal unrestricted concentration protocol. Details.The success probabilities belong to this particular binary Schmidt filter. They are not the optimum over every possible quantum instrument. The diagonal success operator instead gives the standard single-copy entanglement concentration probability . Postselection can increase entanglement in the retained branch, while the outcome-averaged entanglement cannot increase under LOCC.
A density operator is a positive self-adjoint trace-class operator with . A finite expectation is . It represents a pure state exactly when for a unit vector, equivalently or .
For a finite-dimensional spectral decomposition , introduce an auxiliary space with orthonormal vectors and use the enlarged space . DefineThen and . This purification shows that subsystem mixedness can arise from entanglement with an unobserved environment even when the total state is pure. Subsystem measurements alone cannot distinguish these two descriptions.
A nonzero pure bipartite vector is entangled when it cannot be written as a tensor product of two vectors; equivalently its Schmidt rank exceeds one. For mixed bipartite states, entanglement means absence of a convex decomposition into product density operators.
For the nonorthogonal expansion in the question, the unnormalized reduced operator isIndeed . Positivity follows because , and . Thus is a density operator; if is already normalized, . The Gram factors cannot be dropped merely because the vectors are called bases. For unnormalized , physical expectations likewise divide its raw quadratic form by .
For the Schmidt decomposition diagonalize in an orthonormal basis with its positive eigenvalues . Expand with . The reduced matrix gives . Therefore are orthonormal andZero-eigenvalue components vanish because their squared norms are zero. This proves the decomposition for an arbitrary nonzero vector; the zero vector uses the empty sum. For a unit vector .
In the numerical example the coefficient matrix in the two product bases is . Taking the first-subsystem trace yieldsThe vector is in its nullspace, so rank is at most two; its leading minor has determinant one, so . This is the rank of and the Schmidt rank, proving entanglement. The displayed source ket has norm squared , and the displayed reduced matrix has trace . The physical density operator is ; its nonzero eigenvalues are , since . The raw matrix is correct for the unnormalized quadratic form actually printed.
A density operator is a positive self-adjoint trace-class operator with trace one. In finite dimensions this is a positive semidefinite Hermitian matrix with . Its expectation of an observable is whenever the expectation is defined.
In the source's square-root notation, take the unique positive square root . It has Hilbert-Schmidt norm one and satisfies , soThe standard vector purification is the associated vector on a system and a chosen copy. Tracing out the copy gives ; measuring gives the same trace formula. Thus the operator square root and the purified vector are two related objects, distinguished by this vectorization.
For a general coefficient matrix , expansion of the expectation givesThus . Positivity is immediate from , and its trace is one by normalization of .
If is nonsingular, it is square and is positive definite. DefineThen , which for a square matrix also implies . Thus is unitary, , and .
In an eigenbasis of , its square root is . Hence . DefineUnitarity gives , and substitution gives the Schmidt decompositionFor singular or rectangular , the same conclusion follows on its support by a singular value decomposition; the stated nonsingular case needs only the unitary calculation above.
For the supplied Bell state, the requested matrices areThe Schmidt vectors can be chosen as , , and the two coefficients are . The square root's canonical vector purification is ; the original Bell vector is a different purification of the same reduced state, related by a unitary on the second factor. This illustrates the unitary freedom of purification.
A density operator is a positive self-adjoint trace-class operator with . A finite expectation is . It represents a pure state exactly when for a unit vector, equivalently or .
For a finite-dimensional spectral decomposition , introduce an auxiliary space with orthonormal vectors and use the enlarged space . DefineThen and . This purification shows that subsystem mixedness can arise from entanglement with an unobserved environment even when the total state is pure. Subsystem measurements alone cannot distinguish these two descriptions.
A nonzero pure bipartite vector is entangled when it cannot be written as a tensor product of two vectors; equivalently its Schmidt rank exceeds one. For mixed bipartite states, entanglement means absence of a convex decomposition into product density operators.
For the nonorthogonal expansion in the question, the unnormalized reduced operator isIndeed . Positivity follows because , and . Thus is a density operator; if is already normalized, . The Gram factors cannot be dropped merely because the vectors are called bases. For unnormalized , physical expectations likewise divide its raw quadratic form by .
For the Schmidt decomposition diagonalize in an orthonormal basis with its positive eigenvalues . Expand with . The reduced matrix gives . Therefore are orthonormal andZero-eigenvalue components vanish because their squared norms are zero. This proves the decomposition for an arbitrary nonzero vector; the zero vector uses the empty sum. For a unit vector .
In the numerical example the coefficient matrix in the two product bases is . Taking the first-subsystem trace yieldsThe vector is in its nullspace, so rank is at most two; its leading minor has determinant one, so . This is the rank of and the Schmidt rank, proving entanglement. The displayed source ket has norm squared , and the displayed reduced matrix has trace . The physical density operator is ; its nonzero eigenvalues are , since . The raw matrix is correct for the unnormalized quadratic form actually printed.
A density operator is a positive self-adjoint trace-class operator with trace one. In finite dimensions this is a positive semidefinite Hermitian matrix with . Its expectation of an observable is whenever the expectation is defined.
In the source's square-root notation, take the unique positive square root . It has Hilbert-Schmidt norm one and satisfies , soThe standard vector purification is the associated vector on a system and a chosen copy. Tracing out the copy gives ; measuring gives the same trace formula. Thus the operator square root and the purified vector are two related objects, distinguished by this vectorization.
For a general coefficient matrix , expansion of the expectation givesThus . Positivity is immediate from , and its trace is one by normalization of .
If is nonsingular, it is square and is positive definite. DefineThen , which for a square matrix also implies . Thus is unitary, , and .
In an eigenbasis of , its square root is . Hence . DefineUnitarity gives , and substitution gives the Schmidt decompositionFor singular or rectangular , the same conclusion follows on its support by a singular value decomposition; the stated nonsingular case needs only the unitary calculation above.
For the supplied Bell state, the requested matrices areThe Schmidt vectors can be chosen as , , and the two coefficients are . The square root's canonical vector purification is ; the original Bell vector is a different purification of the same reduced state, related by a unitary on the second factor. This illustrates the unitary freedom of purification.
Preferred-basis problem Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
The problem of explaining which basis represents stable measurement records. A maximally entangled quantum premeasurement state can have several equally weighted Schmidt decompositions. Choosing a different decomposition does not alter that pure state, but declaring a projection in a different basis generally changes the resulting mixture. Environment-induced pointer-basis selection supplies a dynamical account of robust records, while leaving the further question of a single realized outcome distinct.
For a bipartite pure state with finite Von Neumann entropy, the joint Von Neumann entropy is zero, so its quantum conditional entropy is . The Schmidt decomposition makes the nonzero eigenvalues of the squared Schmidt coefficients. Their Shannon entropy vanishes exactly when there is one coefficient, equivalently the joint pure state is a product state. Thus negative quantum conditional entropy detects exactly the entangled bipartite pure states; it is only a sufficient criterion for entanglement of general mixed density operators.
Schmidt basis Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-10-25
An orthonormal subsystem basis appearing in a Schmidt decomposition. Its vectors diagonalize the corresponding reduced density matrix. Degenerate Schmidt coefficients permit a freedom to rotate the paired bases together; zero-weight basis vectors complete the subsystem space without contributing to the state.
Schmidt coefficient Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-11-05
The Schmidt coefficients of a normalized bipartite pure state are the nonnegative numbers in its Schmidt decomposition; they satisfy and their squares are the nonzero eigenvalues of either reduced density matrix.
Schmidt rank Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
The Schmidt rank is the number of nonzero terms in a Schmidt decomposition, equivalently the rank of either reduced density matrix of a bipartite pure state.
Schmidt spectrum Created 2026-10-25 Updated 2026-11-05
The nonzero eigenvalues, including multiplicities, of either reduced density operator of a bipartite pure state. A Schmidt decomposition gives and the corresponding expression for by partial trace. Thus unequal marginal spectra rule out a pure joint state. The amplitudes are often called Schmidt coefficients; the spectrum here uses the probabilities .
Square-root amplitude of a density operator 2026-10-31
The unique positive square root of a density operator is a Hilbert-Schmidt operator with . It reproduces expectations by . In chosen orthonormal bases, vectorizing its entries gives a normalized bipartite vector whose reduced density operator is . Thus the positive operator amplitude and the vector purification are related but distinct objects.
More generally a coefficient matrix purifies when . For square nonsingular , the matrix obeys and is unitary, so . In an eigenbasis of , ; its conjugated unitary columns give the second-factor Schmidt decomposition vectors. This is the matrix form of unitary freedom of purification.
Weak monotonicity of quantum entropy Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
Every tripartite density operator satisfies . Purify to and apply Strong subadditivity of Von Neumann entropy to , conditioned on . The Schmidt decomposition gives and , proving the inequality. The original tripartite state need not be pure.
