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Exercise Sheet 1: Quantum Information - Summer Semester 2020

This document contains an exercise sheet for a quantum information course. It includes 3 problems: 1) Analyzing Pauli matrices and their eigenvectors, as well as measurement sequences. 2) Examining the transpose, complex conjugate, and adjoint maps on operators and how they act on basis operators and kets. 3) Comparing classical and quantum evolutions by analyzing stochastic matrices, unitary matrices, and how evolutions act on probability and density operators.

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Kiran Adhikari
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55 views

Exercise Sheet 1: Quantum Information - Summer Semester 2020

This document contains an exercise sheet for a quantum information course. It includes 3 problems: 1) Analyzing Pauli matrices and their eigenvectors, as well as measurement sequences. 2) Examining the transpose, complex conjugate, and adjoint maps on operators and how they act on basis operators and kets. 3) Comparing classical and quantum evolutions by analyzing stochastic matrices, unitary matrices, and how evolutions act on probability and density operators.

Uploaded by

Kiran Adhikari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Exercise Sheet 1

Quantum Information - Summer Semester 2020


RWTH Aachen
Valentin Bruch, Fernando Martinez, Pedro Parrado
Due: 14 April 2020, 12.00

• Since we are uncertain how the online submission will work, this first exercise sheet will be
corrected but not graded.
• You are encouraged to hand in your homework in pairs of (no more than) two students. You
can use the Chat forum to find a partner.
• When handing in with a partner, please form a group in Moodle using the group tool.
You can then submit a solution together and both partners will see the correction on Moodle.
• Your solution should be uploaded to Moodle assignments. Please upload a single PDF
document smaller than 10 MB.

Problem 1 Quantum state and quantum measurement


Given are the so-called Pauli matrices which represent three operators X, Y and Z:
     
∼ 0 1 ∼ 0 −i ∼ 1 0
X= , Y = , Z= .
1 0 i 0 0 −1

In Dirac notation the basis vectors of a 2d complex vector space are represented as |0i ∼ = ( 10 )
and |1i ∼ 0
= ( 1 ). A so-called “bra vector” corresponds to the scalar product with a fixed row
vector: h0| ∼
= ( 1 0 )· and h1| ∼
= ( 0 1 )·. In this notation we can thus write Z = |0i h0| − |1i h1|.
(a) Find the normalized eigenvectors and eigenvalues of these Pauli matrices in the usual way.
(b) Rewrite the Pauli operators X and Y and their eigenvectors in the basis |0i, |1i using
Dirac notation.
(c) Consider the sequence of three measurements Y, Z, Y on the state |ψi = α |0i+β |1i, where
|α|2 + |β|2 = 1. For each measurement write the probability distributions of the outcomes
and the states conditioned on these outcomes.
(d) It is often more convenient to label the Pauli operators as σ1 = X, σ2 = Y , σ3 = Z. Prove
the following properties for the Pauli operators:
(i) σk2 = 1 for all k
P
(ii) σk σl = i m εklm σm for k 6= l where ε is the Levi-Civita symbol.

1
Exercise sheet 1 Quantum Information SS2020 14 April 2020, 12.00

Problem 2 The transposition, complex-conjugation and adjoint map


Consider a fixed orthonormal basis denoted {|ii} indexed by i in some way for a finite dimen-
sional complex vector space. The adjoint (transpose) of an operator is defined as the operator
represented by the adjoint (transpose) of its matrix with respect to this basis. Similarly, the
complex conjugation of an operator may be defined as the operator with complex conjugated
matrix elements. The transposition > , complex-conjugation ∗ and the adjoint † can be considered
as maps on operators, X 7→ X > , X 7→ X ∗ and X 7→ X † .
In contrast to ordinary quantum theory, both the transposition and complex-conjugation maps
play a key roles in quantum information. What is not so obvious is that some of these maps are
basis-dependent as we investigate here.
(a) How do the maps > , ∗ and † act on a basis of operators |ii hj|, which form a basis of the
linear space of operators? How can you distinguish between these maps?
(b) Construct the transpose, complex-conjugate and adjoint for the Pauli operator Y starting
from the Pauli Z-basis {|0i , |1i}.
(c) Now first express the operator Y in its eigenbasis, denoted in the lecture by

+ = √1 (|0i + i |1i),
0
2
0 1
− = √ (|0i − i |1i).
2
Again construct the transpose, complex-conjugate and adjoint of the operator Y . Express
the resulting operators in the original basis {|0i , |1i} and compare with (b).
Hint: Remember that a bra vector corresponds to the scalar product with a√ket vector. The
scalar product involves a complex conjugation: h+0 |φi = (h0|φi − i h1|φi)/ 2.
(d) These three maps can also be defined on ket vectors. (These are different maps but
physicists use the same symbols . . . ). Using (a), how should these three maps act on basis
kets {|ii}? From this determine how do they act on arbitrary kets |ψi.
(e) Consider the state |ψi = α |0i + β |1i and express it in the |±0 i basis. Compute the result
of the three maps and find out which of these are basis-dependent.

Problem 3 Evolutions: Comparing classical and quantum evolutions


A classical probabilistic system is described by a vector with probabilities pj ∈ [0, 1] for its
possible states labeled j. For such a system, an evolution
P is a linear map between probability
vectors that preserves the total probability kpk1 = j pj (called L1 -norm): kSpk1 = kpk1 .

(a) Show that a matrix S ∈ Rn×n is an evolution if and only if S has non-negative elements,
which for each column sum to 1 (called “stochastic matrix”).
In pure quantum theory the probabilities pj = |ψj |2 of a projective measurement finding a
certain quantum state j are described instead by a complex vector with amplitudes ψj . A
pure (reversible) quantum evolution is a linear map of these amplitudes that preserves the total
probability kψk22 = j |ψj |2 , ψj ∈ C (L2 norm): kU ψk2 = kψk2 .
P

(b) Show that a matrix U ∈ Cn×n is an evolution if and only if U is unitary, i.e., U † U =
U U † = I.
(c) Consider now the formulation of quantum theory using the density operator ρ = |ψi hψ| ∈
Cn×n . Show that the diagonal elements of ρ give the probability vector with components
pj . Show that the norm kpk1 = kp0 k1 is preserved for ρ0 = U † ρU .

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