Qutrit States as Probability Vectors

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A particle with spin can represent a qutrit. Any qutrit state can be associated with a 15-dimensional probability vector
whose components
have definite physical meaning. The discrete variable
is the spin projection and
defines a direction of spin projection measurement,
. The ends of the vectors
lie on the unit sphere
, which is illustrated in the top-left corner. In general,
is a probability distribution function of two discrete variables
and
, and
determines a point on the 14-simplex. If the directions
are chosen with equal probability, then
for all
. In that case, the vectors
can be labeled by 10 real non-negative numbers
,
. To illustrate such a probability vector we fix seven components, namely
,
, and
,
, that is, we determine a hyperplane that intersects the simplex, with the cut set depending on three real non-negative parameters
,
, and
. The cut set is nothing else but a cube
,
. In other words, any qutrit state is associated with the probability vector of the form
Contributed by: Sergey Filippov and Vladimir I. Man'ko (February 2010)
Based on a program by: S. M. Blinder
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Snapshots
Details
Representation of spin states by finite dimensional probability vectors is considered in
S. Filippov and V. Man'ko, "Inverse Spin-s Portrait and Representation of Qudit States by Single Probability Vectors," arXiv, 2010.
Permanent Citation