The Conal representation of Quantum States and Non Trace-Preserving Quantum Operations

Abstract

We represent generalized density matrices of a $d$-complex dimensional quantum system as a subcone of a real pointed cone of revolution in ${\mathbb{R}}^{d^2}$, or indeed a Minkowskian cone in ${\mathbb{E}}^{1,d^2-1}$. Generalized pure states correspond to certain future-directed light-like vectors of ${\mathbb{E}}^{1,d^2-1}$. This extension of the Generalized Bloch Sphere enables us to cater for non-trace-preserving quantum operations, and in particluar to view the per-outcome effects of generalized measurements. We show that these consist of the product of an orthogonal transform about the axis of the cone of revolution and a positive real linear transform. We give detailed formulae for the one qubit case and express the post-measurement states in terms of the initial state vectors and measurement vectors. We apply these results in order to find the information gain versus disturbance tradeoff in the case of two equiprobable pure states. Thus we recover Fuchs and Peres' formula in an elegant manner.

11 pages, revtex, v3: some typos corrected

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• A group theoretical approach to causal structures and positive energy on spacetimes
• Impurity and quaternions in nonrelativistic scattering from a quantum memory