PHY F243

Assignment 1
Applications of Vector Spaces in Qubits

Traditionally, bits have been used to represent dichotomous quantities.

These include events like rain or no rain, an argument being TRUE or FALSE
and others. In communication theory, a bit is defined as the basic unit of
information. Regardless of the application, a bit is regarded to have only two
states, most commonly represented as 0 and 1. Therefore, we regard a 1-bit
system to have only 2 states, 0 or 1. And so, it follows that a n-bit system
has 2n states.

A qubit (quantum bit) is defined as a unit of quantum information. In

some sense, it is the quantum mechanical analogue of a bit. Although this
definition is more inclined towards quantum information, however, like the
bit, qubit is more general than that. In general, qubits are 2-state quantum
systems. Since we are dealing with quantum mechanics here, these two states
are represented using Dirac notation. Conventionally, these two states are
labelled as |0i and |1i. Unlike the bit, the qubit however is not limited to
just these two states. The state of qubit can also be a superposition of these
two states. The following equation describes the general state of a qubit.

|ψi = α |0i + β |1i

In the equation above, α and β are complex numbers called the probabil-
ity amplitudes. |α|2 and |β|2 are the probabilites of states |0i and |1i, and
|α|2 + |β|2 = 1.

It is clear from the above description of qubits, that vector spaces are
ingrained in the analysis of qubits. Here, |0i and |1i form the basis for state
sapce of a quantum system. In general, the quantum state can be described
in terms of any orthogonal basis (say, {|xi , |yi}). The basis {|0i , |1i}, is
called the computational basis and its elements are represented by the fol-
lowing vectors.

1
    
0 1
|0i = |1i =
1 0

Since, vector spaces are a part of linear algebra, the applications of vec-
tor spaces bring with them all the tools linear algebra has for the analysis
of qubits. One such application is in the analysis of quantum circuits. In
this document, we will particularly look at the NOT Gate, also called the
Pauli-X Gate.

In traditional transistor based computers, the operations on bits are per-

formed using Boolean Algebra. This involves the use of its axioms, theorems,
techniques such as the truth tables, Karnaugh Maps. However, since qubits
owe their representation to vector spaces, linear algebra forms the basis of
analysis of qubits. In boolean algebra, the NOT operation amounts to flip-
ping the bit (0 becomes 1 and 1 becomes 0). The Pauli-X GATE, is the
qubit equivalent of this operation. Since, we are dealing with vector spaces
here, this operation can be modelled by a matrix, which can be formed by
the basis expansion of the vectors. The Pauli-X GATE flips the state |0i to
|1i and vice versa. The matrix representation of this gate is as follows.
 
0 1
X=
1 0
The other Pauli matrices are given by
     
1 0 0 −i 1 0
I= Y= Z=
0 1 i 0 0 −1

These significance of the Pauli matrices is that they are Unitary and Her-
mitian and form the basis of all 2×2 matrices with complex elements. Thus,
any linear operator that acts on qubits can be written as a linear combina-
tion of the Pauli Matrices. Thus, is is possible to implement all the basic
gates used in boolean algebra for use in quantum systems as well. This is
because they can be represented as linear transformations. And, these linear
transformations can further be made into a matrix which makes the analysis
of such gates easier.