Mixed qubit representation

Ayush
2023

We know that a qubit is a representation of the two-state quantum sys-

|ψ⟩ = α |0⟩ + β |1⟩

and the probability distribution of the qubit is the measurement of the state is
given by the square of the coefficient of that state, e.g.

P |0⟩ = α2

.
In general, while measuring the qubit itself, if we find the probability which
is the measurement along a particular axis to a particular result, whereas while
measuring through another axis, it might yield a different result. In that case,
we have a mixed qubit and thus, we can say that probability of a measurement
alone cannot tell us if its a pure qubit or a mixed qubit.
So the representation of a qubit can be done using the density matrix ρ
which can define the position of the qubit so that it can be represented in a
Bloch sphere.
Example: r
1 3
|ψ⟩ = √ |0⟩ + |1⟩
4 4
is a pure qubit, while

ρ = 0.25 |0⟩⟨0| + 0.75 |1⟩⟨1|

U = nI I + xX X + nY Y + nZ Z
where
       
1 0 0 1 0 −i 1 0
I= ,X = ,Y = ,Z =
0 1 1 0 i 0 0 −1

1
  
nI + nZ nX − inY
U=
nX + inY nI − nZ
Since its represents a quantum state, T r(U ) = 1, which gives nI = 1/2, so
our density density can be represented like U as

I + ⃗r · ⃗σ
ρ=
2
where ⃗r denotes the vector ⟨2nX , 2nY , 2nZ ⟩
Thus, using Pauli matrices as axes, we can graphically represent a qubit.
To find the eigenvalues of ρ,
 
nI + nZ − λ nX − inY
det(U − λI) = det( )
nX + inY nI − nZ − λ
= λ2 − 2nI λ + n2I − (n2X + n2Y + n2Z ) = 0
which gives us
1 |⃗r|
λ= ±
2 2
We find that |⃗r| ≤ 1 is the general state for getting non-negative eigenvalues.
Also, |⃗r| = 1 is a special condition where there is only one non-zero eigenvalue,
implying a pure state, whereas |⃗r| < 1 have two eigenvalues, 0 < λ1 , λ2 < 1,
implying a mixed state. Moreover, for a pure qubit, T r(ρ2 ) = 1, and for a mixed
qubit, T r(ρ2 ) < 1.
Graphically speaking, an affine image of a unit sphere to an ellipsoid is given
by:
x → f0 + xf1 + yf2 + zf3
where f0 is the center and f1 , f2 , f3 form an orthogonal system. This is analo-
gous to our density matrix with the center as the maximally entangled state as
I/2 and Pauli vectors forming the 3d hilbert space to represent the qubit.

Figure 1: General representation of a qubit in the form a Bloch sphere

We can easily see that a pure qubit is a special condition of the ellipsoid
and thus is represented by the Bloch sphere, while a mixed qubit is an interior

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point in the Bloch sphere whose general equation forms an ellipsoid also called
the Bloch ball.
We also understand that a mixed qubit is just a probablity distribution of
pure qubits
We also realize that we can draw the eigenvectors on the unit sphere and
the line joining the two points intersect the ellipsoid at ρ and the intersection
defines the eigenvalues of the two eigenvectors.
A mixed state corresponds to a probabilistic mixture of pure states. We can
understand that different distributions of pure states can generate equivalent
(i.e. physically indistinguishable) mixed states. Therefore, when we consider
purification, we can safely say that a mixed state is a partial trace of some pure
state in a composite system.
In general, a qubit pure state |ψ⟩ can always be written as:
θ θ
ψ = cos |0⟩ + eiϕ sin |1⟩
2 2
and a mixed state ρ can be a spectrum decomposed as

ρ = p0 |e0 ⟩⟨e0 | + p1 |e1 ⟩⟨e1 |

, where |e0 ⟩ , |e1 ⟩ are the eigenvectors corresponding to the inter points of oρ
and the Bloch sphere, and the spectrum p0 , p1 i.e. the probabilities along that
direction is equivalent to the relative proportion of the segments (ρ, |e1 ⟩) and
(ρ, |e0 ⟩).

Figure 2: Representation of a mixed qubit in a Bloch sphere with its eigenvectors

This gives an intuitive response to the mixed qubit in the Bloch sphere which
Jingliang Gao also uses for the nondestructive estimation of the eigenvectors of
mixed state.[1]
We can clearly see that the reduced vector formed by the density operator of
a mixed state easily gives us the two eigenstates and their spectrum in a Bloch
sphere along its vector and can give us the projections along any measurement
operator to give us more information.

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 Considering this, although the purification of a mixed state is highly non-
unique, and the mathematical construction has no true meaning physically, we
can figure a few things out from the physical representation of a mixed state.
According to Schrondinger- HJW theorem, if we have a mixed quantum P state
ρ with two
P different realizations as ensemble of pure states as ρ = p
i i |ϕ i ⟩⟨ϕi |
and ρ = j qj |φj ⟩⟨φj | (wavefunctions not being mutually orthogonal), then the
purification of the mixed state can be written as:
1. Purification 1: X√
1
ψSA = pi |ϕi ⟩ ⊗ |ai ⟩
i
2. Purification 2: X√
2
ψSA = qi |φj ⟩ ⊗ |bj ⟩
j

The sets |ai ⟩ and |bj ⟩ are two collections of orthonormal bases of the respec-
tive auxialiary spaces. These two purifications only differ by a unitary trans-
1 2
formation
P √ acting on the auxialiary space such that ψSA = (I ⊗ UA ) ψSA =
j qj |φj ⟩ ⊗ UA |bj ⟩ which simply means that the mixed state is just an en-
semble of different measurements on the purifying system.
Also, here we get that there respectively exists another orthogonal set of
ensemble of probabilitistic states which gives us the same density matrix, i.e.
the two different coordinate systems which form the density matrix of a mixed
state.
Now, these formulations can be extended to understand graphically a mixed
state ensemble in a two-qubit system though steering ellipsoids done by Sania
Jevtic et al.[3] or to understand the driven systems in structured reservoirs where
a qubit interacts with a structured environment done by Gian Luca Giorgi et
al.[2]

Figure 3: Ellipsoidal representation of a two-qubit state. Bob’s bloch vector b

Figure 4: Bloch sphere and steady state ellipsoid according to dissipation [2]

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References
[1] Jingliang Gao. “Nondestructive Estimation of the Eigenvectors of Mixed
State”. In: International Journal of Theoretical Physics 56 (2017), pp. 617–
623.
[2] Gian Luca Giorgi et al. “Microscopic and phenomenological models of
driven systems in structured reservoirs”. In: Physical Review A 101.1 (2020),
p. 012122.
[3] Sania Jevtic et al. “Quantum steering ellipsoids”. In: Physical review letters
113.2 (2014), p. 020402.