Bloch sphere

In quantum mechanics and computing, the Bloch sphere is a

geometrical representation of the pure state space of a two-level
quantum mechanical system (qubit), named after the physicist Felix
Bloch.[1]

Quantum mechanics is mathematically formulated in Hilbert space

or projective Hilbert space. The pure states of a quantum system
correspond to the one-dimensional subspaces of the corresponding
Hilbert space (or the "points" of the projective Hilbert space). For a
two-dimensional Hilbert space, the space of all such states is the
complex projective line This is the Bloch sphere, also known
to mathematicians as the Riemann sphere.

The Bloch sphere is a unit 2-sphere, with antipodal points Bloch sphere
corresponding to a pair of mutually orthogonal state vectors. The
north and south poles of the Bloch sphere are typically chosen to
correspond to the standard basis vectors and , respectively, which in turn might correspond e.g. to
the spin-up and spin-down states of an electron. This choice is arbitrary, however. The points on the surface
of the sphere correspond to the pure states of the system, whereas the interior points correspond to the
mixed states.[2][3] The Bloch sphere may be generalized to an n-level quantum system, but then the
visualization is less useful.

For historical reasons, in optics the Bloch sphere is also known as the Poincaré sphere and specifically
represents different types of polarizations. Six common polarization types exist and are called Jones vectors.
Indeed Henri Poincaré was the first to suggest the use of this kind of geometrical representation at the end
of 19th century,[4] as a three-dimensional representation of Stokes parameters.

The natural metric on the Bloch sphere is the Fubini–Study metric. The mapping from the unit 3-sphere in
the two-dimensional state space to the Bloch sphere is the Hopf fibration, with each ray of spinors
mapping to one point on the Bloch sphere.

Contents
Definition
u, v, w representation
Pure states
Plotting pure two-spinor states through stereographic projection
Density operators
Rotations
Rotation operators about the Bloch basis
Rotations about a general axis
Derivation of the Bloch rotation generator
See also
References

Definition
Given an orthonormal basis, any pure state of a two-level quantum system can be written as a
superposition of the basis vectors and , where the coefficient of (or contribution from) each of the
two basis vectors is a complex number. This means that the state is described by four real numbers.
However only the relative phase between the coefficients of the two basis vectors has any physical
meaning (the phase of the quantum system is not directly measurable), so that there is redundancy in this
description. We can take the coefficient of to be real and non-negative. This allows the state to be
described by only three real numbers, giving rise to the three dimensions of the Bloch sphere.

We also know from quantum mechanics that the total probability of the system has to be one:

, or equivalently .

Given this constraint, we can write using the following representation:

, where
and .

The representation is always unique, because, even though the value of is not unique when is one of
the states (see Bra-ket notation) or , the point represented by and is unique.

The parameters and , re-interpreted in spherical coordinates as respectively the colatitude with respect
to the z-axis and the longitude with respect to the x-axis, specify a point

on the unit sphere in .

For mixed states, one considers the density operator. Any two-dimensional density operator ρ can be
expanded using the identity I and the Hermitian, traceless Pauli matrices ,

where is called the Bloch vector.

It is this vector that indicates the point within the sphere that corresponds to a given mixed state.
Specifically, as a basic feature of the Pauli vector, the eigenvalues of ρ are . Density operators
must be positive-semidefinite, so it follows that .

For pure states, one then has

in comportance with the above.[5]

As a consequence, the surface of the Bloch sphere represents all the pure states of a two-dimensional
quantum system, whereas the interior corresponds to all the mixed states.

u, v, w representation
The Bloch vector can be represented in the following basis, with reference to the density
operator :[6]

where

This basis is often used in laser theory, where is known as the population inversion.[7] In this basis, the
numbers are the expectations of the three Pauli matrices , allowing one to identify the three
coordinates with x y and z axes.

Pure states
Consider an n-level quantum mechanical system. This system is described by an n-dimensional Hilbert
space Hn . The pure state space is by definition the set of 1-dimensional rays of Hn .

Theorem. Let U(n) be the Lie group of unitary matrices of size n. Then the pure state space of Hn can be
identified with the compact coset space

To prove this fact, note that there is a natural group action of U(n) on the set of states of Hn . This action is
continuous and transitive on the pure states. For any state , the isotropy group of , (defined as the set
of elements of U(n) such that ) is isomorphic to the product group

In linear algebra terms, this can be justified as follows. Any of U(n) that leaves invariant must have
as an eigenvector. Since the corresponding eigenvalue must be a complex number of modulus 1, this
gives the U(1) factor of the isotropy group. The other part of the isotropy group is parametrized by the
unitary matrices on the orthogonal complement of , which is isomorphic to U(n − 1). From this the
assertion of the theorem follows from basic facts about transitive group actions of compact groups.

The important fact to note above is that the unitary group acts transitively on pure states.
Now the (real) dimension of U(n) is n2 . This is easy to see since the exponential map

is a local homeomorphism from the space of self-adjoint complex matrices to U(n). The space of self-
adjoint complex matrices has real dimension n2 .

Corollary. The real dimension of the pure state space of Hn is 2n − 2.

In fact,

Let us apply this to consider the real dimension of an m qubit quantum register. The corresponding Hilbert
space has dimension 2m.

Corollary. The real dimension of the pure state space of an m-qubit quantum register is 2m+1 − 2.

Plotting pure two-spinor states through stereographic projection

Given a pure state

where and are complex numbers which are normalized so that

and such that and ,

i.e., such that and form a basis and have
diametrically opposite representations on the Bloch sphere, then let

be their ratio.

If the Bloch sphere is thought of as being embedded in with its center at the origin and with radius one,
then the plane z = 0 (which intersects the Bloch sphere at a great circle; the sphere's equator, as it were) can
be thought of as an Argand diagram. Plot point u in this plane — so that in it has coordinates
.

Draw a straight line through u and through the point on the sphere that represents . (Let (0,0,1) represent
and (0,0,−1) represent .) This line intersects the sphere at another point besides . (The only
exception is when , i.e., when and .) Call this point P. Point u on the plane z = 0 is the
stereographic projection of point P on the Bloch sphere. The vector with tail at the origin and tip at P is the
direction in 3-D space corresponding to the spinor . The coordinates of P are
 .

Note: mathematically the Bloch sphere for a two-spinor

state can be considered to be a Riemann sphere or a
complex 2-dimensional projective Hilbert space,
denotable as . The complex 2-dimensional Hilbert
space (of which is a projection) is a
representation space of SO(3). [8]
Density operators
Formulations of quantum mechanics in terms of pure
states are adequate for isolated systems; in general
quantum mechanical systems need to be described in
terms of density operators. The Bloch sphere
parametrizes not only pure states but mixed states for 2-
level systems. The density operator describing the
mixed-state of a 2-level quantum system (qubit)
corresponds to a point inside the Bloch sphere with the
following coordinates:
where is the probability of the individual states within
the ensemble and are the coordinates of the
individual states (on the surface of Bloch sphere). The
set of all points on and inside the Bloch sphere is known
as the Bloch ball.
Bloch sphere centered at the origin of . A pair
of points on it, and have been chosen as
a basis. Mathematically they are orthogonal even
though graphically the angle between them is π.
In those points have coordinates (0,0,1) and
(0,0,−1). An arbitrary spinor on the Bloch
sphere is representable as a unique linear
combination of the two basis spinors, with
coefficients being a pair of complex numbers;
call them α and β. Let their ratio be ,
which is also a complex number .
Consider the plane z = 0, the equatorial plane of
the sphere, as it were, to be a complex plane and
that the point u is plotted on it as .
Project point u stereographically onto the Bloch
sphere away from the South Pole — as it were
— (0,0,−1). The projection is onto a point marked
on the sphere as .

For states of higher dimensions there is difficulty in extending this to mixed states. The topological
description is complicated by the fact that the unitary group does not act transitively on density operators.
The orbits moreover are extremely diverse as follows from the following observation:

Theorem. Suppose A is a density operator on an n level quantum mechanical system whose distinct
eigenvalues are μ1 , ..., μk with multiplicities n1 , ..., nk. Then the group of unitary operators V such that V A
V* = A is isomorphic (as a Lie group) to

In particular the orbit of A is isomorphic to

It is possible to generalize the construction of the Bloch ball to dimensions larger than 2, but the geometry
of such a "Bloch body" is more complicated than that of a ball.[9]
Rotations
A useful advantage of the Bloch sphere representation is that the evolution of the qubit state is describable
by rotations of the Bloch sphere. The most concise explanation for why this is the case is that the Lie
algebra for the group of unitary and hermitian matrices is isomorphic to the Lie algebra of the group
of three dimensional rotations .[10]

Rotation operators about the Bloch basis

The rotations of the Bloch sphere about the Cartesian axes in the Bloch basis are given by[11]

Rotations about a general axis

If is a real unit vector in three dimensions, the rotation of the Bloch sphere about this
axis is given by:

An interesting thing to note is that this expression is identical under relabelling to the extended Euler
formula for quaternions.

Derivation of the Bloch rotation generator

Ballentine[12] presents an intuitive derivation for the infinitesimal unitary transformation. This is important
for understanding why the rotations of Bloch spheres are exponentials of linear combinations of Pauli
matrices. Hence a brief treatment on this is given here. A more complete description in a quantum
mechanical context can be found here.

Consider a family of unitary operators representing a rotation about some axis. Since the rotation has one
degree of freedom, the operator acts on a field of scalars such that:

Where
We define the infinitesimal unitary as the Taylor expansion truncated at second order.

By the unitary condition:

Hence

For this equality to hold true (assuming is negligible) we require

This results in a solution of the form:

Where is a unitary Hermitian transformation, and is called the generator of the unitary family.

Hence:

Since the Pauli matrices are unitary Hermitian matrices and have eigenvectors corresponding
to the Bloch basis, , we can naturally see how a rotation of the Bloch sphere about an arbitrary
axis is described by

With the rotation generator given by

See also
Atomic electron transition
Gyrovector space
Poincaré sphere (optics)
Versors
Specific implementations of the Bloch sphere are enumerated under the qubit article.

References
1. Bloch, Felix (Oct 1946). "Nuclear induction" (https://doi.org/10.1103%2Fphysrev.70.460).
Phys. Rev. 70 (7–8): 460–474. Bibcode:1946PhRv...70..460B (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/
abs/1946PhRv...70..460B). doi:10.1103/physrev.70.460 (https://doi.org/10.1103%2Fphysrev.
 70.460).; see Arecchi, F T, Courtens, E, Gilmore, R, & Thomas, H (1972). "Atomic coherent
states in quantum optics", Phys Rev A6(6): 2211
2. Nielsen, Michael A.; Chuang, Isaac L. (2004). Quantum Computation and Quantum
Information. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-63503-5.
3. "Bloch sphere | Quantiki" (http://www.quantiki.org/wiki/Bloch_sphere).
4. Poincaré, Henri (1892). Théorie mathématique de la lumière II (https://archive.org/details/tho
riemathma00poin). G. Carré.
5. The idempotent density matrix

acts on the state eigenvector with eigenvalue 1, so like a projection

operator for it.
6. Feynman, Richard; Vernon, Frank; Hellwarth, Robert (January 1957). "Geometrical
Representation of the Schrödinger Equation for Solving Maser Problems". Journal of
Applied Physics. 28 (1): 49–52. Bibcode:1957JAP....28...49F (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/
abs/1957JAP....28...49F). doi:10.1063/1.1722572 (https://doi.org/10.1063%2F1.1722572).
S2CID 36493808 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:36493808).
7. Milonni, Peter W.; Eberly, Joseph (1988). Lasers. New York: Wiley. p. 340. ISBN 978-
0471627319.
8. Penrose, Roger (2007) [2004]. The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the
Universe. New York: Vintage Books (Random House, Inc.). p. 554. ISBN 978-0-679-77631-
4.
9. Appleby, D.M. (2007). "Symmetric informationally complete measurements of arbitrary rank".
Optics and Spectroscopy. 103 (3): 416–428. arXiv:quant-ph/0611260 (https://arxiv.org/abs/q
uant-ph/0611260). Bibcode:2007OptSp.103..416A (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007O
ptSp.103..416A). doi:10.1134/S0030400X07090111 (https://doi.org/10.1134%2FS0030400
X07090111). S2CID 17469680 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:17469680).
10. D.B. Westra 2008, "SU(2) and SO(3)", https://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~westra/so3su2.pdf
11. Nielsen and Chuang 2010, "Quantum Computation and Information," pg 174
12. Ballentine 2014, "Quantum Mechanics - A Modern Development", Chapter 3

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