2024 Spring QuantInfo Assignment1
2024 Spring QuantInfo Assignment1
2024 Spring QuantInfo Assignment1
Assignment No. 1
Hand in your solution to the assignment by 14:00 on Wednesday, 20th March 2024.
7
The final score will be rescaled by a factor of 19 (to give a maximum score of 7% without bonus).
Note: Remember to put your name and student number on your work.
Hint: Your calculation often simplifies if you use the abstract notation of bras and kets, rather than expanding them as matrices
or vectors. Throughout, you may take | ± ii = √12 (|0i ± i|1i) as the eigenstate corresponding to the ±1 eigenvalue of the Pauli
observable σy .
Q 1. [2%] Unitary operators [Adapted from Nielsen & Chuang, Exercise 2.18]
Show that all eigenvalues {λ} of a unitary matrix U (regardless of its size) have modulus 1, i.e., λ = eiθ for some real θ.
Q 3. [5%] Relative phase, global phase, outcome probabilities, and expectation value
iχ
Consider a system prepared in the coherent superposition of the eigenstates of σy , |Ψ(χ, ϕ)i = e√2 | + ii + eiϕ | − ii , ϕ, χ ∈
[0, 2π). Compute the expectation value of σz for this state and determine all the value(s) of χ and ϕ where a measurement of σz
would always give the +1 result, i.e., an expectation value equals to 1? Note that σz = |0ih0| − |1ih1|.
Q 4. [4%] Partial trace, reduced states, and Schmidt decomposition [Adapted from an exercise in Preskill’s lecture notes]
Consider the two-qubit state:
1 1
|ψi = |0iA ⊗ (−|0iB + |1iB ) + |1iA ⊗ (|0iB + |1iB ) (1)
2 2
(a) Using partial trace, determine the reduced state of A, i.e., ρA .
(b) Invoke a symmetry argument to deduce the reduced state of B, i.e., ρB .
(c) Using your result from (a), deduce the Schmidt decomposition of |ψi.
Hint: Don’t compute any singular value decomposition, but explain how the eigenvalues of the reduced state are related to the
expansion coefficients in the Schmidt basis.
Show that they indeed constitute a valid POVM (and hence define a legitimate measurement).