In quantum mechanics, and especially quantum information and the study of open quantum systems, the trace distance T is a metric on the space of density matrices and gives a measure of the distinguishability between two states. It is the quantum generalization of the Kolmogorov distance for classical probability distributions. (Wikipedia)
Questions tagged [trace-distance]
79 questions
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Does the trace distance have a geometric interpretation?
Consider the trace distance between two quantum states $\rho,\sigma$, defined via
$$D(\rho,\sigma)=\frac12\operatorname{Tr}|\rho-\sigma|,$$
where $|A|\equiv\sqrt{A^\dagger A}$.
When $\rho$ and $\sigma$ are one-qubit states, the trace distance can be…
glS
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Prove that the trace distance is upper-bounded by the Hilbert-Schmidt distance
In (Haah et al. 2015), in the third page, second column, the authors use the following result: given a pair of states $\rho,\sigma$, we have
$$
\|\rho-\sigma\|_1 \le 2\sqrt{\min(\operatorname{rank}(\rho),\operatorname{rank}(\sigma))}…
glS
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Is the diamond norm subadditive under composition?
The diamond norm distance between two operations is the maximum trace distance between their outputs for any input (including inputs entangled with qubits not being operated on).
Is it the case that the Diamond norm is subadditive under…
Craig Gidney
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What is intuition for the trace distance between quantum states?
Given two mixed states $\rho$ and $\sigma$, the trace distance between the states is defined by $\sum_{i=1}^n |\lambda_i|$, where $\lambda_i$'s are eigenvalues of $\rho - \sigma$.
I know the definition of eigenvalues, but I don't have intuition on…
satya
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Prove that a channel is close to acting on only one system
Background
Suppose I have a quantum channel $\Phi:B(\mathcal{H}_1)\rightarrow B(\mathcal{H}_1)\otimes B(\mathcal{H}_2)$, such that there is some small $\epsilon$ such that for any two input states $\rho$ and $\sigma$
$$ \Vert \rho - \sigma\Vert_1…
Sam Jaques
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Given an orthogonal projection $\Pi$, is $\|\Pi(\sigma-\rho)\Pi\|_1\le\|\sigma-\rho\|_1$ true?
Suppose I have an arbitrary orthogonal projector $\Pi$ and two density operators $\rho, \sigma$. Is it true that:
$$ ||\Pi (\sigma - \rho) \Pi||_1 \le || \sigma - \rho ||_1 $$
where $||\cdot||_1$ denotes the trace norm?
NYG
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Prove that $\|p^{\otimes n} - q^{\otimes n}\| \leq n \|p-q\|$ for density operators $p,q$
I've been trying to figure this out for a while and I'm totally lost. My goal is to show that for two density operators $p$, $q$, that $$\|p^{\otimes n} - q^{\otimes n}\| \leq n \|p-q\|$$
So far I have constructed a weak inductive hypothesis over n…
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Why is the fidelity, rather than the trace distance, the standard choice to compare quantum states?
I don't think it's particularly controversial to say that the "standard" way people use to compare quantum states is via the fidelity. Yes, sometimes the trace distance is used as well, but it seems to me that the "canonical choice", the first one…
glS
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If $\rho,\sigma$ are classical-quantum states, can the fidelity $F(\rho,\sigma)$ be expressed in terms of $F(\rho_i,\sigma_i)$?
Let $\rho = \sum_i \vert i\rangle\langle i\vert \otimes \rho_i$ and $\sigma = \sum_i\vert i\rangle\langle i\vert\otimes\sigma_i$ where we are using the same orthonormal basis indexed by $\vert i\rangle$ for both states.
The quantum fidelity is…
Wut
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Prove that for one-qubit unitaries $\|U-V\|_1=2\max_\psi\|(U-V)|\psi\rangle\|$
Given two 1-qubit rotations $U=R_n (\theta)$ and $V=R_m(\phi)$ with $n$ and $m$ vectors defining a rotation and $\theta, \phi$ angles, define $D(U,V)={\rm tr}(|U-V|)=:\|U-V\|_1$ where $|U-V|=\sqrt{(U-V)^\dagger (U-V)}$, $\|U-V\|_1$ is the trace norm…
Apo
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Is it possible to have a trace fidelity of 1 even if two unitary operations are different?
The gate fidelity of two quantum unitary operations is often described using $\frac{1}{2^n}|\text{tr}(U^\dagger V)|$. Is it ever possible that $U^\dagger V \ne I$ however $\frac{1}{2^n}|\text{tr}(U^\dagger V)| = 1$? Specifically, is it possible to…
smi
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How many measurements are needed to distinguish two fixed density matrices?
Suppose there are two fixed density matrices $\rho_1$ and $\rho_2$ are prepared for equal probability. Can we say something about the minimum number of measurements required to distinguish the two states?
One approach I was thinking of is using the…
Jon Megan
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Trace distance between mixed state and pure state vs trace distance between their purifications
Let $\rho$ be a mixed state and $\vert\psi\rangle\langle\psi\vert$ be a pure state on some Hilbert space $H_A$ such that
$$\|\rho - \vert\psi\rangle\langle\psi\vert \|_1 \leq \varepsilon,$$
where $\|A\|_1 = \text{Tr}\sqrt{A^\dagger A}$. Does there…
user1936752
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How to find the distance between a given $\rho$ and the nearest pure state(s)?
I have a $d$-dimensional state $\rho$. Is there any way to find the (possibly not unique) trace distance to the nearest pure state:
$$
\min_{|\psi\rangle} \,\,\lVert \rho - |\psi\rangle\langle \psi| \rVert_1
$$
where $\lVert A\rVert_1 =…
forky40
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Closeness of purifications of states
Uhlmann's theorem states that if two states $\rho_A, \sigma_A$ satisfy $F(\rho_A, \sigma_A)\geq 1 - \varepsilon$, then there for any purification $\Psi_{AR}$ of $\rho_A$, one can find a purification $\Phi_{AR}$ of $\sigma_A$ such that
$$F(\Psi_{AR},…
user1936752
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