qml.math.purity¶

purity(state, indices, check_state=False, c_dtype='complex128')[source]¶

Computes the purity of a density matrix.

$$\gamma = \text{Tr}(\rho^2)$$

where $\rho$ is the density matrix. The purity of a normalized quantum state satisfies $\frac{1}{d} \leq \gamma \leq 1$, where $d$ is the dimension of the Hilbert space. A pure state has a purity of 1.

It is possible to compute the purity of a sub-system from a given state. To find the purity of the overall state, include all wires in the indices argument.

Parameters

• state (tensor_like) – Density matrix of shape (2**N, 2**N) or (batch_dim, 2**N, 2**N)

• indices (list(int)) – List of indices in the considered subsystem.

• check_state (bool) – If True, the function will check the state validity (shape and norm).

• c_dtype (str) – Complex floating point precision type.

Returns

Purity of the considered subsystem.

Return type

float

Example

>>> x = [[1/2, 0, 0, 1/2], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [1/2, 0, 0, 1/2]]
>>> purity(x, [0, 1])
1.0
>>> purity(x, [0])
0.5

>>> x = [[1/2, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 1/2]]
>>> purity(x, [0, 1])
0.5